---
title: "Bending Spoons cuts much of Airtable's staff weeks after $1.28 billion deal; Glide sells a $25 replacement"
description: "Bending Spoons is laying off a \"large part\" of Airtable weeks after paying $1.28 billion for it. The buyer's math only works if the company runs on a fraction of the people who built it, and that arithmetic now hangs over every private software mark from 2021."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Deals"
published: 2026-10-12T23:17:32.214Z
modified: 2026-10-12T23:17:32.214Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/bending-spoons-cuts-much-of-airtable-s-staff-weeks-after-1-28-billion-deal-glide-sells-a-25-replacement
language: en
keywords: "M&A, Layoffs, Software, Valuations, AI"
---

# Bending Spoons cuts much of Airtable's staff weeks after $1.28 billion deal; Glide sells a $25 replacement

> Bending Spoons is laying off a "large part" of Airtable weeks after paying $1.28 billion for it. The buyer's math only works if the company runs on a fraction of the people who built it, and that arithmetic now hangs over every private software mark from 2021.

[Bending Spoons](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/bending-spoons) told [Airtable](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/airtable) staff on Monday that [a "large part" of the team is being laid off](https://www.businessinsider.com/airtable-layoffs-job-cuts-bending-spoons-2026-10), with everyone affected out the door by the end of the week on what the company calls substantial separation packages [1]. The cut is the deal. The Milan conglomerate agreed in August to pay $1.28 billion in cash for the spreadsheet-and-database app [2], and that price only clears if the product survives on a fraction of the people who built it.

*Chart: **Airtable fell from an $11.7 billion mark to a $1.28 billion cash price** Bar chart of Airtable's valuation at three points: $11.7 billion in 2021, $4 billion in early 2026 secondary trades, and the $1.28 billion Bending Spoons paid in 2026.*

*Airtable valuation marks: the 2021 private round, reported secondary-market trades in early 2026, and Bending Spoons' 2026 all-cash acquisition. Sources: TechCrunch; PitchBook via Yahoo Finance. [2][9]*

## A $25 tool now sets the ceiling

Start at replacement cost. [Glide](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/glide), an AI app builder, sells a platform that creates internal business apps "from a spreadsheet, a prompt, or a file", and [its entry plan costs $25 a month](https://www.glideapps.com/pricing) [3]. When a working internal app is a prompt away, code stops defending a no-code company and the installed base becomes the asset; Airtable counts most of the Fortune 100 as customers [2]. Engineering writer Gergely Orosz, who has followed Bending Spoons through its acquisitions, [expects Airtable to end up run by about 50 people, against a price he puts at roughly two and a half years of its revenue](https://x.com/GergelyOrosz/status/2109754439540072823) [4].

![Airtable's ProductCentral app builder shown on a monitor](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/3653825bd68d7898.jpg)

*Airtable's ProductCentral app builder, from the company's own site: the spreadsheet-and-database app counts most of the Fortune 100 as customers, and the buyer's math assumes a fraction of the staff can keep them. (Courtesy of Airtable)*

## The playbook predates AI, and AI makes the price stick

The stated reason is a "deep belief that small teams ship more and better" [1]. Orosz's sharper correction is that these are not AI layoffs: Bending Spoons has bought loss-making software firms and run them on a tenth of the staff, or less, since before AI was part of the pitch, and he argues Airtable's founders took the top bid knowing what follows [5][6]. What AI changed is the replacement cost of the product itself, which is now low enough to underwrite. Bending Spoons already gives every employee a personal AI agent with the same access as its human [7].

## Public money is funding the model

The company listed on Nasdaq in July at an $18 billion valuation [2]. In late September it [syndicated a $1.25 billion term-loan add-on due 2031 to keep buying](https://theinference.org/article/raters-lift-bending-spoons-debt-to-bb-while-the-number-that-tests-its-28b-value-stays-hidden) [8]. [Second-quarter revenue more than doubled to $704 million](https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-08/69302554-bending-spoons-s-p-a-bending-spoons-announces-q2-2026-results-399.htm) [7]. Organic growth was 3%, because the compounding here is purchased and then the costs are cut [7]. The market pays nearly 49 times earnings for that record [8]. The untested link is whether 50 people can hold reliability at Fortune 100 standard; on [Vimeo](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/vimeo), Bending Spoons says stability incidents fell by about 90% after its takeover [7].

## Every 2021 mark now has a reference trade

PitchBook analyst Derek Hernandez calls the deal "[negative for private-market marks and positive for liquidity](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/bending-spoons-got-airtable-80-222551224.html)", a roughly 80% reset [9]. [Miro](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/miro) was [last marked at $17.5 billion](https://theinference.org/article/bending-spoons-agreed-to-pay-1-355-billion-for-miro-ai-agents-made-6-3-million-unbilled-calls-in-september) [9]. Talkdesk's last round valued it at $10 billion [9]. Those marks now have one cleared print to measure against.

*Chart: **One cleared print: $1.28 billion against marks of $10 billion to $17.5 billion** Column chart of four valuations in billions of dollars: Miro's last private mark at $17.5 billion, Airtable's 2021 round at $11.7 billion, Talkdesk's last round at $10 billion, and the $1.28 billion Bending Spoons paid for Airtable in cash.*

*Private valuations in billions of dollars: Miro's and Talkdesk's last marks and Airtable's 2021 round, against Bending Spoons' all-cash price for Airtable. Sources: PitchBook via Yahoo Finance; TechCrunch. [9][2]*

When an agent can rebuild the product, what is left to buy is the customer base. The people leaving Airtable this week know that base better than anyone, which leaves them best placed to point the new tools at real work. The repricing and the retooling are the same move, and the second one is open to anyone who starts today.

## Takeaway

The $1.28 billion price works only because replacement cost has collapsed: Glide builds working internal apps from $25 a month, so what Bending Spoons bought is the customer base, and every 2021 mark now has a reference print.

## Sources

1. [Business Insider, "Airtable's new owner is laying off a 'large part' of its team", 12 October 2026](https://www.businessinsider.com/airtable-layoffs-job-cuts-bending-spoons-2026-10)
2. [TechCrunch, "Bending Spoons to buy Airtable for $1.28B", 4 August 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/bending-spoons-to-buy-airtable-for-1-28b/)
3. [Glide, pricing page for GlideOS plans, retrieved 12 October 2026](https://www.glideapps.com/pricing)
4. [Gergely Orosz on X, post on Airtable running on about 50 people and the price as 2.5 years of revenue, 12 October 2026](https://x.com/GergelyOrosz/status/2109754439540072823)
5. [Gergely Orosz on X, post stating the model predates AI and is not AI layoffs, 12 October 2026](https://x.com/GergelyOrosz/status/2109756325811171333)
6. [Gergely Orosz on X, post on the founders selling to the highest bidder knowing the playbook, 12 October 2026](https://x.com/GergelyOrosz/status/2109756922324787615)
7. [Bending Spoons S.p.A., Q2 2026 results, GlobeNewswire, 13 August 2026](https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-08/69302554-bending-spoons-s-p-a-bending-spoons-announces-q2-2026-results-399.htm)
8. [Simply Wall St via Yahoo Finance, "Bending Spoons (NasdaqGS:BSP) Taps Credit Markets Again As Its Undervalued Narrative Gets Tested", 8 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/bending-spoons-nasdaqgs-bsp-taps-031936511.html)
9. [PitchBook via Yahoo Finance, "Bending Spoons got Airtable for 80% off. Who's next?", 4 August 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/bending-spoons-got-airtable-80-222551224.html)


---

Bending Spoons cuts much of Airtable's staff weeks after $1.28 billion deal; Glide sells a $25 replacement — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/bending-spoons-cuts-much-of-airtable-s-staff-weeks-after-1-28-billion-deal-glide-sells-a-25-replacement