Multiple reports indicate that a vast majority of Vimeo’s staff has been let go, an unfortunate but highly predictable outcome of being acquired by private equity firm Bending Spoons.
It’s somewhat rare for the average person to know a private equity firm by name, but those paying attention to the creative space will likely have heard the name before as it has directly impacted the industry on multiple occasions with its strategy of acquisition followed by mass layoffs. It happened back in 2023 when Bending Spoons acquired Filmic and shortly thereafter fired all 22 members of the original team — including the company’s founder and CEO. It happened again at WeTransfer in July 2024. Not two months later, 75% of the company was let go. PetaPixel has spoken to members of the team who were retained beyond the initial firing spree who confirm that they too were eventually released midway through 2025.
This is Bending Spoons’ modus operandi: acquire company, fire staff, coast on existing technology as long as possible. Filmic Pro, the once ubiquitous and incredibly popular video capture app for iPhone, has seen no major feature updates since its acquisition. The app has received a single substantive update (beyond bug fixes) since then, and that was just the addition of support for Apple Log. After WeTransfer was acquired, the company nearly immediately raised prices and attempted to use people’s files to train AI before dumping that idea after major backlash.
Predictably, Vimeo is on the same path. Acquired for $1.38 billion in September 2025, Bending Spoons has quickly moved to try and make as much of that money back as quickly as possible by pulling the plug on the most expensive part of doing business: having employees.
“Yesterday, following Vimeo’s recent acquisition by a private equity firm, I learned that I, along with a large portion of the company, was impacted by layoffs,” former Vimeo vice president of Global Brand and Creative Dave Brown posted on LinkedIn.
“I was laid off from Vimeo today, along with a gigantic amount of the company, after the Bending Spoons acquisition,” Steve Dixon, a former software engineer at Vimeo posted as well.
“I can confirm that a layoff was announced at Vimeo on January 20, 2026. To respect the privacy of those departing, we cannot provide additional details at this time,” a Bending Spoons spokesperson emailed to Gizmodo. “Going forward, Bending Spoons remains committed to growing Vimeo to meet the needs of its diverse user base.”
It’s the same story every time. Expect that the remaining people at Vimeo — however few that might be — won’t be there long. As Bending Spoons’ business practices historically show, it has no interest in anything other than aggressive cost cutting en route to recouping its investment through the shambling corpses of what remains.
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