Miro was profitable, had $435m in the bank, and sold at 2.3 times revenue

Bending Spoons has signed a definitive agreement to buy Miro at a $1.355 billion enterprise value and a $1.79 billion equity value, against the $17.5 billion post-money Miro carried in January 2022. Every outlet ran the 92 percent. Here is the number nobody ran: Miro is profitable, holds about $435 million in net cash (which the buyer gets back on day one), and does roughly $600 million of annual recurring revenue, 90 percent of it from businesses and enterprises.

So it sold at 2.26 times recurring revenue. Profitable. Not shrinking, as far as anyone has said.

That multiple is what the market pays for a declining business. Miro's founder Andrey Khusid published his note to staff and walked through the two figures himself, which is more candour than most sellers offer: enterprise value $1.355 billion, plus net cash, equals the $1.79 billion that reaches shareholders. Both halves are in the note. The awkward arithmetic is not.

Look at the buyer's calendar instead

July 28: Bending Spoons enters a €500 million SACE-backed term loan facility. August 4: definitive agreement to buy Airtable for $1.285 billion. September 4: Airtable closes. September 10: Miro signs.

Thirty-seven days, $2.64 billion of enterprise value, one credit facility, and a newly public acquirer that claims a billion registered users across a portfolio already holding AOL, Evernote, Eventbrite, Vimeo and WeTransfer. Bending Spoons is not opportunistically picking up distressed assets. It is running a programme, and the supply is 2021.

Why a profitable company with half a billion in cash sells

Because the cap table needs the cash more than the company does. Eric Newcomer republished his own 2022 reporting on the day of the deal:

Eric Newcomer@EricNewcomer

"ICONIQ backed up the truck, investing $570 million in Miro across its fourth, fifth, and sixth fund. ICONIQ led a funding round that was announced in January 2022 that valued the company at $17.5 billion post-money. The firm owns 16.2% of Miro, according to the presentation."

from @NewcomerMedia in 2022 on ICONIQ t.co/ddLVnKfbZT

If ICONIQ still held something close to that 16.2 percent, its share of $1.79 billion is roughly $290 million against $570 million invested. A fund carrying an illiquid January 2022 mark for four and a half years, with limited partners asking about distributions, will probably take cash at half (you would too). A founder will not fight a board that wants it. And there is no IPO window for a $600 million ARR collaboration tool competing with Figma, Canva and Microsoft, so the alternative to this price is this price in 2028.

That is our read on why the board said yes, and it is the question TechCrunch asked and left open.

The case against reading it that way: 2.26 times revenue may simply be correct for a category that AI canvases are eating, and Khusid notes that Bending Spoons has never sold a material business it acquired, which is worth something to customers. Employees who took options after 2021 get nothing either way. That part is not arguable.

What would you expect next? We would expect another Bending Spoons deal for a 2021-vintage SaaS company at under three times ARR signed before the end of Q1 2027, and Miro list prices to rise within a year of closing, which is the pattern at Evernote, WeTransfer and Vimeo. A quarter with no deal, or a price freeze, and we have misread the machine.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approval.