Bending Spoons paid $1.28 billion for Airtable at 2.7 times sales; Glide prices the exit at $25 a month
Bending Spoons closed a $1.28B purchase of Airtable at about 2.7 times trailing sales, and its stated playbook is "enhancing monetization" across more than 500,000 organizations. Glide is standing at the exit with a one-prompt port priced at $25 to $125 a month for a whole team, against Airtable's $20 to $45 seats.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The exit pitch, timed to the closing
Glide's blog now runs the headline Airtable's$1.285B — Airtable, private, latest valuation $1.285B new owner paid for: "Why GlideOS is the best Airtable alternative for businesses in 2026 (and you can port it in one prompt)" 1. The post beneath the headline names the Bending Spoons+0.39% — Bending Spoons, up 0.39 percent today takeover as the reason and calls moving Airtable databases into GlideOS apps "your best move" 1. Glide, led by CEO David Siegel, put GlideOS into open beta on July 14, 2026, and has shipped releases weekly since 1 6.
Bending Spoons paid about 2.7 times sales
Bending Spoons (NASDAQ: BSP) completed the $1.28B all-cash purchase of Airtable on September 4, 2026, its first acquisition since its July 1 Nasdaq listing 2. Annual recurring revenue was about $480M in June 2026, growing more than 20% year on year, which puts the price near 2.7 times trailing sales 3. Airtable had raised more than $1.4B, was valued above $11B at its 2021 peak, and reportedly traded near $4B on secondaries early this year 3.
Airtable fell from an $11B peak mark to a $1.28B cash exit
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| 2021 peak valuation | $11B |
| Early-2026 secondary mark | $4B |
| Deal value incl. net cash | $2.25B |
| Cash paid, 4 Sep 2026 | $1.28B |
The playbook has a price record
Bending Spoons says its transformations are "typically deep," entailing "reorganizing teams" and "enhancing marketing and monetization" 2. The mechanism has a record: under its ownership, Evernote$200M — Evernote, private, latest valuation $200M cut the free plan to 50 notes in December 2023, effective the same day, after laying off most of Evernote's US and Chile staff 4 5. Subscriptions supplied 84% of BSP revenue in the first quarter of 2026 4. The Airtable math needs the 500,000-plus organizations on the platform to stay while the bill rises 2.
The exit is priced per team, not per seat
On September 1 Glide rebuilt GlideOS pricing: Basic at $25, a new Plus tier at $50, and Pro starting at $125 a month with unlimited apps and "build with your own agent" MCP support 6 7. Airtable bills every editor: $20 a seat for Team, $45 for Business 8. A five-editor team on Business pays $225 a month, more than GlideOS Pro costs for the whole workspace 8. A September assessment argues the same platform is quietly absorbing Adalo's small-business base, shipping web apps by default while mobile rivals wait on app-store review 9. Glide says it already serves over 100,000 companies 7.
GlideOS Pro starts at $125 a month for a team; one Airtable Business seat is $45
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Airtable Team, per seat | $20/mo |
| GlideOS Basic | $25/mo |
| Airtable Business, per seat | $45/mo |
| GlideOS Plus | $50/mo |
| GlideOS Pro | $125/mo |
The first retention read is the next quarterly report
BSP's August 13 outlook excluded Airtable entirely; the business enters guidance when the company next reports results 2. That report is the third-quarter one: BSP announced second-quarter results on August 13, and its investor newsroom listed no third-quarter date as of October 11 10. The last guidance day cost the stock 19%, with full-year revenue guided to $2.78B to $2.82B against a $2.90B consensus, even as second-quarter revenue more than doubled to $704.2M 11. Miro$1.79B — Miro, private, latest valuation $1.79B, agreed at a $1.355B enterprise value, is next in the pipeline 10. No churn number exists yet, for either side. The bet needs customers who stay while they pay more. Glide's campaign is the customer who leaves.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
