Intuit to Acquire Mailchimp for $12B

Intuit the global technology platform that makes TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint, and Credit Karma, has agreed to acquire Mailchimp, a global customer engagement and marketing platform for growing small and mid-market businesses. 

The planned acquisition of Mailchimp is valued at approximately $12 billion in cash and stock. With the acquisition of Mailchimp, Intuit says it will accelerate two of its goals of becoming the center of small business growth and disrupting the small business mid-market.

Intuit and Mailchimp plan to work to deliver an end-to-end customer growth platform for small and mid-market businesses, allowing them to:

• get their business online
• market their business
• manage customer relationships
• benefit from insights and analytics
• get paid
• access capital
• pay employees
• optimize cash flow
• be organized and stay compliant

Small and mid-market businesses will have the power to combine their customer data from Mailchimp and QuickBooks’ purchase data to get the actionable insights they need to grow and run their businesses.

Founded in Atlanta, GA in 2001, Mailchimp began by offering email marketing solutions, and evolved into a top customer engagement and marketing automation tool fueled by an AI-driven technology stack. Its customer reach is 13 million total users globally, 2.4 million monthly active users, and 800,000 paid customers with 50 percent of customers outside of the U.S.

While Intuit did not make direct benefits to its network of ProAdvisors immediately clear, the accounting community is already weighing in on what the move could mean for them. Specifically, social media reactions from tax and accounting professionals are mixed, to say the least.

Some accountants professed that the purchase and eventual integration of Mailchimp could have benefits for:

• email marketing
• calendar booking
• ecommerce store/checkout
• 12 million small biz that could become clients of ProAdvisors
• a custom domain and website

Meanwhile, others question the practically this acquisition has for QBO subscriptions and QBOA firms. Some even went so far as to say it will no longer be necessary to give Constant Contact sign-up discounts with ProAdvisors any longer, or wondered whether they will be able to open Mailchimp and QBO in the same browser.

Feedback continues to roll in as the news disseminates throughout the accounting profession. Feel free to share your thoughts here as well.