Vimeo’s $1.38 Billion Sale Marks The End Of An Era

Vimeo, once the internet’s most prestigious stage for independent filmmakers and animators, is being acquired by Milan-based app developer Bending Spoons in a $1.38 billion all-cash deal. The sale, expected to close later this year, will end Vimeo’s turbulent run as a public company.

For the creative community, the news is hardly shocking. Vimeo’s cultural influence has been fading for years, its pivot away from entertainment and towards enterprise software leaving behind the innovators and filmmakers who built its reputation.

The News

Vimeo announced this week it will be acquired by Bending Spoons, the Milan-based app developer behind Evernote and WeTransfer, in an all-cash deal worth $1.38 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2025, after which Vimeo will be delisted from public exchanges.

Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari promised “ambitious investments” in Vimeo’s future, citing enterprise video services and AI-enabled features. But given the company’s track record — including significant staff cuts and restrictions at Evernote and WeTransfer — many in the creative community are skeptical.

Why it Matters

For filmmakers and animators, this isn’t just another acquisition. It’s the symbolic final act in Vimeo’s long, slow fade from industry relevance.

Anecdotally: At Cartoon Brew, we’ve seen an exponential drop in shorts and pilots submissions hosted by Vimeo, as YouTube has become the almost exclusive home to new indie animation.

Once the premier stage for independent creators, Vimeo is remembered as the place where a Staff Pick could change a career, an honor filmmakers often valued more than a festival slot or a splashy YouTube debut.

That cultural cachet has eroded over the last decade, replaced by a string of pivots and missed opportunities under misguided leadership.

What Creators Lost

For independent animators, Vimeo’s pivot away from being an entertainment destination was predictably devastating. CEO Anjali Sud said bluntly in 2021: “We actually don’t want Vimeo to be an entertainment destination where people come.”

That was effectively the end of Vimeo as a hub for shorts, experimental films, and breakout animation. Creators had already begun migrating to Patreon, YouTube, and TikTok, but Vimeo’s pivot sealed the deal.

The Bigger Picture

Vimeo’s downfall is a case study in forgetting the problem you set out to solve.

• It was built to give creators a platform for distribution and community.
• It sold out to corporate owners chasing exits and outmoded distribution models.
• It pivoted to B2B software as a service for survival, not vision.

From a cultural standpoint, once Vimeo stopped listening to creators, it lost them. And once the culture was gone, the company’s fate was sealed.

What’s Next

Bending Spoons says it will expand Vimeo’s enterprise and creator offerings. History, however, suggests otherwise: both Evernote and WeTransfer saw major staff cuts and restrictions after acquisition. For the animation community, the acquisition isn’t a shock. The death of Vimeo as a creative hub happened years ago. This week’s $1.38B deal is just the final closing credits.