California-based financial software company Intuit has confirmed rumours that it is acquiring MailChimp. Mailchimp is an American marketing automation platform and email marketing service and is the trading name of its operator, Rocket Science Group, an American company founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong.
Intuit says it is in the process of buying MailChimp and that the deal will soon be completed. The Intuit-MailChimp deal will be completed in both cash and stock. Best known for its TurboTax software, Intuit is one of the biggest companies in the email marketing space. The company is also known for its acquisition of Credit Karma and Mint.
For $12 billion, Intuit is spending about 10 percent of its entire market capitalization buying email marketing company MailChimp, and to some, it is quite baffling why the company would embark on such a decision.
According to a statement, intuit believes that acquiring MailChimp will fuel its “powering prosperity around the world, and its strategy to become an AI-driven expert platform”. It also believes that the acquisition would “accelerate two of its previously shared strategic Big Bets: to become the center of small business growth; and to disrupt the small business midmarket”.
Speaking about the development, Ben Chestnut, CEO and Co-founder of Mailchimp mentioned that “over the past two decades, we’ve vastly expanded and evolved Mailchimp’s platform to help millions of small businesses around the world start and grow. With Intuit, we’ve found a shared passion for empowering small businesses. By joining forces with Intuit, we’ll take our offerings to the next level, leveraging Intuit’s AI-driven expert platform to deliver even better products and services to small businesses. This is an exciting new chapter for Mailchimp, our 1,200+ dedicated employees, and customers.”
As part of the deal, Intuit and Mailchimp will work on an innovative small business growth engine powered by marketing automation, customer relationship management, accounting and compliance, payments and expense, and e-commerce solutions.
“Together, Mailchimp and QuickBooks will become a powerful engine for small and mid-market business customers to get, engage and retain their customers, run their businesses, optimize cash flow, and remain compliant. Today, QuickBooks helps more than 7 million small and mid-market businesses get paid fast, access capital, pay their employees, and grow in an omnichannel world. Mailchimp’s addition will bring speed and velocity to these efforts, with the acceleration of mid-market expansion opportunities and global growth for both brands”, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Intuit Small Business and Self-Employed Group – Alex Chris’s commented on combining Intuit and MailChimp’s strongest selling points.
The deal is expected to close before the second quarter of 2022 comes to an end.
