The owner of AOL and other tech businesses hit Wall Street with a $1.7 billion initial public offering Wednesday, as Italy-based Bending Spoons priced 58 million shares at $29 apiece. The stock surged 39.7% in its first day of trading under the symbol “BSP” on the Nasdaq, giving the company a market value of $25.2 billion.

The company is receiving $1 billion in proceeds, while the rest goes to shareholders. Among Bending Spoons’ well-known holdings are the event creation and ticketing company Eventbrite and the video hosting service Vimeo. AOL, formerly America Online, is a more recent acquisition for the company, according to Associated Press reporting.

Bending Spoons’ key focus is acquiring troubled tech companies and overhauling them. The company takes its name from the fictional concept of bending spoons with the mind, as portrayed in the dystopian AI-focused “The Matrix” films. “We were about to attempt to create a world-class company with $40,000, a team of five, and a track record that read 0 for 1,” the company wrote in its prospectus. “A touch of irony seemed appropriate.”

Founded in 2013 by three friends following the failure of their first startup, Bending Spoons has grown by buying more than 50 companies. The acquired companies are reorganized with AI technology often used as a key tool in the redesign. The focus remains on subscription-based revenue from the portfolio of businesses.

The company reported net income of $27.5 million on revenue of $601 million during the first three months of 2026. It had more than 500 million monthly active users and 9 million monthly paying customers as of March. The company carries debt of just under $4.4 billion and plans to use proceeds from the offering to invest in new acquisitions.

The Bending Spoons offering comes amid a resurgence in the IPO market this year, highlighted by the record-setting market debut of SpaceX last month. The strong first-day performance suggests investor appetite remains robust for tech companies with proven revenue models, as AP reported via Local 10.