Intuit, the maker of financial software, is acquiring customer engagement and email marketing services provider Mailchimp in a strategic move aimed at making the combined entity a global technology platform driven by artificial intelligence (AI), Silicon Valley-based Intuit announced in a news release posted on its website Monday. The cash-and-stock deal is worth $12 billion.
By joining forces, the two companies hope to deliver an end-to-end platform that empowers small- and medium-sized firms to run their business and manage various aspects of business operations, including employee payroll, company cash flow, and regulatory compliance with government and industry bodies.
“We’re focusing on powering prosperity around the world for consumers and small businesses,” said Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi. “Expanding our platform to be at the center of small and midmarket business growth helps them overcome their most important financial challenges,” Goodarzi added.
The acquisition, expected to close by the second quarter of fiscal year 2022 on January 31 of that year, is the biggest to date for Intuit. Last year, Intuit acquired Credit Karma, a credit monitoring service offered for free to the public, for $7 billion. Intuit’s ecosystem of financial products includes tax preparation software TurboTax, personal finance management app Mint, and accounting solution QuickBooks.
Overall, Intuit hopes to combine Mailchimp’s digital marketing services with QuickBooks to track spending and help small businesses manage customers and their books. The deal will also bring Mailchimp’s technology to scale and its global customer reach to Intuit.
“Since day one, setting our customers up for success has been our top priority, and we’re confident that our acquisition by Intuit will advance that mission and secure the legacy of support for small businesses that we’ve built over the last 20 years,” said Ben Chestnut, CEO and co-founder of Mailchimp.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Mailchimp is best known for its email marketing platform, which has grown to include marketing services and software for tracking customer engagement. The company has been profitable even without external funding and has not taken on any outside money, which means the Intuit deal will be a windfall for Chestnut and Mailchimp’s other co-founder, Dan Kurzius. News of the acquisition cheered investors, sending Intuit stock up 2% on Tuesday to close at $568.27, one day after the announcement of the purchase.
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Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
