By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa
Bending Spoons, owner of internet pioneer AOL, has announced above-guidance pricing for an initial public offering at a roughly $18 billion valuation.
The Italy-based company said its offering raised a total of $1.68 billion, and was priced at $29.00 a share--above the $26.00 to $28.00 indicative range.
Bending Spoons, which also owns ticketing platform Eventbrite and video platform Vimeo, put up 34.4 million of the nearly 58.0 million shares offered, with the rest sold by certain stockholders.
A successful IPO would provide the acquisition-focused technology company with new sources of funding for more mergers and acquisitions, supporting its credit profile, S&P Global Ratings analysts said in a recent report.
Bending Spoons has shelled out more than $3.3 billion since last November to buy AOL, Eventbrite and Vimeo.
S&P said it expected Bending Spoons to keep prioritizing M&A, using most of the IPO proceeds to fund inorganic growth.
Shares of the company are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Wednesday. The offering is expected to close the following day.
Underwriters have an option to purchase up to an additional 5.2 million ordinary shares from Bending Spoons and up to nearly 3.5 million more from the selling stockholders.
Goldman Sachs International, JPMorgan and Allen & Company acted as joint lead bookrunning managers.
Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com