There are four stages to any successful companies lifecycle and Bending Spoons's model is to maximize what they can get in the final stage of decline.

There's nothing wrong with that, but if you're a user of one of these services you might take it as a hint to find an alternative.

yes, they are trying to gouge me on Evernote that no longer works, that i tried to unsubscribe from

here is a solid article from this week's Economist (that mentions another real jewel of a company):

https://www.economist.com/business/2026/07/01/can-bending-sp...

> cut costs, jack up prices, and milk remaining users for as much cash as possible for as long as possible.

Don't forget "slash the workforce, ensuring that the product will get worse over time".

And the article tries to spin this positively:

> After the acquisition, Bending Spoons is anything but a passive owner, making changes to the products’ user experience and features, as well as to the underlying tech; monetization strategy, including pricing; and team organization, including headcount.

> While this focus on efficiency and revenue overlaps with private equity strategies, Bending Spoons claims a key difference: It “aims to hold forever, and has never sold an acquired business.” It is building a live portfolio, not presiding over a tech graveyard.

That last line has me wondering who wrote this.

I had a vendor acquired by one of these types of outfits.

I looked through their assets and it clicked: “this is where software goes to die”

Consolidating stagnant or dying SaaS offerings makes sense, but it'd be nice if there were a version of this that's a better steward of the companies.

That's a short term business model if I have ever seen one.

"customers who stick around." is anthesis to mid- to long-term customer loyalty when you do "jack up prices, and milk remaining users for as much cash as possible"

So like Delphi?