Intuit has agreed to acquire Mailchimp for approximately $12 billion worth of cash and stock to support its “mission of powering prosperity around the world.”
Mailchimp is best known either for its email marketing platform or the so-cute-it-hurt ad read that accompanied the first season of the hit podcast Serial. No matter which springs to mind first, the company has since expanded with the addition of tools that businesses can use to create their own websites, set up online stores, or advertise on platforms like Facebook, among other things.
Intuit, meanwhile, is behind the Mint and QuickBooks financial management services as well as the TurboTax e-filing software. With the exception of TurboTax, those services are mostly used behind the scenes, while the offerings Intuit is acquiring alongside Mailchimp are more visible to the public. Now the company will be able to appeal to both sides of running an online business.
Put another way: Mailchimp co-founder Ben Chestnut says the deal will allow the combined company to “deliver an innovative small business growth engine powered by marketing automation, customer relationship management, accounting and compliance, payments and expense, and e-commerce solutions” and become “a single source of truth for your business.”
Intuit says in its press release that Mailchimp has 13 million users, 2.4 million of which use at least one of the company’s products each month, and 800,000 paying customers. But the real appeal could be the information Mailchimp collects: It’s said to have “data and technology in the form of 70 billion contacts, and 250+ rich partner integrations,” as well as “AI-powered automation at scale [that] fuels 2.2 million daily AI-driven predictions” across the platform.
The acquisition is “expected to close prior to the end of Intuit’s second quarter fiscal 2022, subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals and satisfaction or waiver of other customary closing conditions,” Intuit says.
Axios reports that the acquisition’s terms will make it the largest deal involving a bootstrapped company—i.e. one that hasn’t accepted any outside funding—to date. It’s also expected to be incredibly lucrative for Mailchimp’s founders because they rewarded employees through a profit-sharing model rather than issuing stock in the company like most startups do.
