Airtable lays off staff after acquisition by Bending Spoons

Airtable is undergoing significant layoffs under its new owner, Italian tech conglomerate Bending Spoons. The company announced Monday that it is laying off a "large part" of Airtable's team as part of a strategic shift to focus on smaller, more agile teams and enhanced AI features.

Federico Simionato, Bending Spoons' product leader, stated in an X post that the cuts were not a reflection of employee performance but stemmed from a belief that "small teams ship more and better." He thanked departing employees and encouraged potential employers to consider them.

Bending Spoons completed its acquisition of Airtable, the spreadsheet and database application, for $1.28 billion in August. The exact number of employees affected by the layoffs has not yet been disclosed, and representatives for Bending Spoons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Airtable product lead Alessandro Savarese detailed in a blog post that affected employees will depart by the end of the week and will receive "substantial separation packages." He reiterated Bending Spoons' philosophy of empowering smaller teams for greater impact, aiming to improve Airtable's product and customer support.

The company's future focus will be on enhancing Airtable's core platform and integrating more AI capabilities. In response to the news, X product engineer Mridul Singhai posted that X "will continue to hire & grow people who want to commit."