Brightcove, a cloud platform that helps businesses manage and monetize video content, is being taken private by Italian technology company Bending Spoons in an all-cash deal valued at $233 million.
Brightcove prices at $4.45 per share, which translates to a 90% premium to its 60-day average.
Founded in Boston in 2004, Brightcove develops tools and services for creating, hosting, streaming, marketing, and monetizing video content, with clients including Marriott Hotels, Ford, and Johnson & Johnson. The company, which went public on the Nasdaq in 2012 at $11 per share, has not had a fruitful period of late – its latest earnings showed revenue fell 2% last year, while net loss widened 22%. Brightcove’s market cap also dropped significantly from $72 million at the beginning of the year, although it recently grew to $12 million at $143 million – overall, however, the company didn’t have a good time with Wall. The street.
“As the Board considers Brightcove’s long-term strategy, we unanimously determined that this acquisition represents the best opportunity to increase the value of the business and deliver compelling, specific, and immediate cash value to shareholders,” said Brightcove board chair Diane Hessan. said a statement issued today.
Bending Spoons, on the other hand, is a mobile app development company founded by Baillie Gifford that has been known for various notable acquisitions in recent years. These include Evernote, which it bought in 2022 before laying off 129 employees; and WeTransfer, which it bought back in July shortly before laying off 75% of its 350 employees.
Elsewhere, Bending Spoons bought popular video app Filmic in 2022, before laying off all staff the following year. And shortly after closing its acquisition of community-building platform Meetup in January, Bending Spoons founder and CEO Luca Ferrari announced it was “significantly downsizing” Meetup in the US.
So there is a clear trend of the last few years that may not go well with Brightcove, although it is too early to tell what the outcome will be here.
This latest acquisition, however, marks Bending Spoons’ entry into the enterprise SaaS market, and represents its first acquisition of a publicly traded company. Ferrari said Brightcove is “a respected name in the broadcast technology space,” according to a press release.
“When Bending Spoons acquires a business, we do so with the intention of managing it and using it forever,” said Ferrari. “With this in mind, we are excited to build on the strong work of the current team, and ensure that Brightcove thrives for many years to come.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025, and is still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
