Bending Spoons plans to lay off 75% of WeTransfer staff after acquisition

Italy-based app company Bending Spoons, which owns Evernote and Meetup, is planning to lay off 75% of the staff of file transfer service WeTransfer, TechCrunch has learned. Bending Spoons acquired the Dutch company in July for an undisclosed amount.

The company confirmed the plans for the WeTransfer layoff to TechCrunch. The staff that is being let go will be informed after Bending Spoons goes through local regulations in different countries regarding layoffs. Dutch media reported that WeTransfer has over 350 employees.

Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari said that typically, the company studies the organization that it is acquiring and determines what is the best vision of the business going forward with an aim to operate it forever.

“Once the vision is clear, we try to close the gap between the status quo and the vision as quickly and as fully as we can. Typically, doing so involves making major changes to many areas, including the organization. While we don’t enjoy making painful or unpopular decisions, we’re prepared to do so when we believe it’s the right thing to do to help the business thrive,” he said.

Ferrari also noted that in WeTransfer’s case, Bending Spoons wanted to have a small and focused team.

“In this particular case, the vision we developed is of a smaller, more sharply focused WeTransfer organization, which we believe will be better positioned to serve WeTransfer’s success with a long-term view,” the CEO said.

Since its acquisition, WeTransfer has rolled out a new feature to let users extend the expiry date of a link on the app. However, neither Bending Spoons nor WeTransfer hasn’t disclosed their plans about long-term product roadmap.

The layoffs are not surprising, as Bending Spoons regularly cuts the employee count of companies it acquires in order to operate them profitably. In February 2023, it cut 129 employees from Evernote’s staff. In December 2023, the company let go of the entire workforce of Filmic, the popular photo and video editing app that it acquired in 2022. Earlier this year, Meetup also faced job cuts after its acquisition.

In February, Bending Spoons raised $155 million in equity financing from new investor Durable Capital Partners and existing ones, including Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, NB Renaissance, NUO Capital, and StarTIP (controlled by Tamburi Investment Partners).

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