Bending Spoons has mandated Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to lead its US IPO, which is expected to take place later this year, a source involved in the offering process told IFR.
The Italian media conglomerate, which is known for acquiring and turning around stagnant tech brands, is expected to raise up to US$1bn on the offering, the source told IFR.
Officials at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan declined to comment. Bending Spoons did not respond to a request for comment.
IFR previously reported that Bending Spoons was interviewing banks for a potential IPO.
The company is planning to round out the full lineup of banks underwriting its IPO and is focused on forming a pan-regional syndicate, the source said.
The appointment of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs is logical.
JP Morgan was lead-left arranger on a US$1.3bn bank loan in December that Bending Spoons used to help fund the purchases of AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo, IFR reported at the time.
In October, Goldman Sachs acted as placement agent on a US$710m equity raise at an US$11.7bn valuation. T Rowe Price led that private raise, with additional participation from Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises and Fidelity Management.
In addition to the purchases late last year of AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo, Bending Spoons owns Evernote, file transfer platform WeTransfer and route-planning app komoot.
The company has 300m monthly active users, according to its website.
In a Reuters interview in November, Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari said that the company was ready to go public and was likely to pursue a US listing given the higher valuations afforded to tech companies.