Bending Spoons' recent IPO filing has sparked a bigger debate than valuations and public markets. As the company grows through acquisition rather than building new products from scratch, it raises an important question for mobile gaming: is the future of growth about creating the next hit, or acquiring and scaling what already works?

When most technology companies go public, the story is usually about a breakthrough product.

Bending Spoons has changed that narrative.

The Italian software company, which recently filed for a Nasdaq IPO reportedly targeting a valuation of around $20 billion, has built its business not by creating a single category-defining app, but by acquiring and operating a growing portfolio of digital products.

Over the past few years, the company has acquired brands including Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Eventbrite, AOL and Komoot. Together, these products reach hundreds of millions of users worldwide and generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

The obvious story is the IPO but the more interesting story is what Bending Spoons represents.

The Rise of the Software Roll-Up

Traditionally, software companies have been valued on their ability to create the next hit product.

Although, Bending Spoons has taken a different approach. Instead of betting everything on one breakthrough app, it buys products that already have users, revenue and brand recognition. It then applies a centralised operating model focused on efficiency, monetisation and growth.

In simple terms, the company isn't just building software, it's building a machine for operating software businesses.

As the software market matures, there are thousands of products with loyal user bases but limited growth. Many founders are looking for exits, while larger technology companies continue to streamline their portfolios.

For operators with the right systems, those products represent opportunity.

The AI Factor

One reason investors are paying attention is the role artificial intelligence appears to be playing in the company's operating model.

According to its filing, approximately 90% of software changes during the first quarter of 2026 were generated or assisted by AI.

Whether that number becomes the industry standard remains to be seen. What is clear is that companies are increasingly using AI to improve productivity across engineering, marketing, customer support and operations.

For businesses managing multiple products, even small efficiency gains can have an outsized impact on profitability.

The result is a model where scale comes not only from acquiring more users, but from reducing the cost of serving them.

Gaming's Consolidation Era

If this sounds familiar, it's because mobile gaming has already been heading in this direction.

Following the pandemic boom, mobile gaming experienced a wave of consolidation. Major deals such as Take-Two's acquisition of Zynga, Sony's acquisition of Bungie and Unity's merger with ironSource reflected an industry looking to scale through acquisition rather than purely organic growth.

After a slowdown in 2023, momentum appears to be returning. Recent transactions highlight how broad the trend has become. Publishers are acquiring studios, analytics companies are acquiring competitors and service providers are expanding their capabilities through strategic acquisitions. From Supercell's takeover of Metacore to Atari's acquisition of Hipster Whale and Sensor Tower's purchase of AppMagic, companies across the ecosystem are increasingly pursuing growth through consolidation.

The reason is simple: growth is harder to find than it was five years ago.

User acquisition costs remain high, competition for player attention is relentless and launching a successful new title has become increasingly difficult. In that environment, acquisitions offer something organic growth often cannot: speed.

Need expertise in a new genre? Buy it. Need access to a new audience? Acquire it. Need stronger analytics, monetisation or publishing capabilities? Bring them in-house.

As mobile gaming matures, the question is no longer whether consolidation is happening. The question is how far do we think this movement will go.

What Does This Mean for Gaming?

This is where the story becomes particularly relevant. For years, much of the gaming industry has been built around the pursuit of the next hit.

Studios invest heavily in development, launch a title and hope it finds an audience large enough to justify the spend.

But what if another path is emerging?

Imagine a company that acquires mature mobile games with established audiences. Rather than chasing new launches, it focuses on improving retention, optimising monetisation, streamlining LiveOps and centralising growth functions.

The goal isn't to find the next blockbuster. It's to extract more value from proven products.

This take may sound familiar. Across mobile gaming, many companies are already extending the lifecycle of older titles through better analytics, CRM, pricing strategies and LiveOps execution.

Bending Spoons simply demonstrates what that philosophy looks like when applied at scale.

Building vs Buying

The biggest takeaway from the IPO may not be the valuation or the revenue figures.

It's the strategic question it raises. For the last decade, growth has largely been associated with creation: building new products, launching new games and entering new markets.

Bending Spoons may not be a gaming company, but it embodies a trend that gaming executives know well. As industries mature and growth becomes harder to find, success increasingly comes down to a choice: build the next hit, or acquire and operate existing products more effectively than the competition.

As AI lowers costs and improves productivity, the economics of this model become even more compelling.

For gaming companies facing rising development costs and increasing competition, that raises an important question:

Will the next generation of industry leaders be the companies that build the next hit or the companies that become best-in-class operators of products that already exist?

This question sits at the heart of many discussions taking place across Gamesforum events. As user acquisition becomes more expensive and sustainable growth takes priority, gaming companies are increasingly exploring new ways to scale through acquisition, operational efficiency, AI and portfolio expansion.

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