Intuit, the technology platform behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and Credit Karma, completed its acquisition of Mailchimp, a customer engagement and marketing platform. Intuit closed the acquisition for total consideration of approximately $5.7 billion in cash, 10.1 million shares of Intuit common stock with a fair value of approximately $6.3 billion (based on the Oct. 29 closing stock price of $625.99 per share) and 573,000 restricted stock units that will be valued based on the Nov. 1 closing stock price. Intuit will also grant approximately $200 million of restricted stock units to Mailchimp employees shortly after the closing.
Intuit funded the cash consideration through cash on hand and a $4.7 billion term loan under a new credit agreement. According to an 8K filed with the SEC, JPMorgan Chase served as administrative agent for the credit agreement, which provides for a $4.7 billion unsecured term loan and a $1 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. In addition, according to the 8K, BofA Securities and the Bank of Nova Scotia acted as co-syndication agents for the credit agreement and JPMorgan Chase, BofA Securities and the Bank of Nova Scotia served as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners.
“At Intuit, we’re focused on powering prosperity around the world, and we’re thrilled that the addition of Mailchimp will allow us to help small and mid-market businesses with one of their top challenges: reaching and retaining customers,” Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit, said. “We’ll expand our AI-driven expert platform by integrating Mailchimp and QuickBooks in smart ways that will help businesses from startup to scale-up grow and run with confidence. I’m personally excited to officially welcome our new Mailchimp colleagues to the Intuit family.”
The companies began testing a one-way integration between QuickBooks Online and Mailchimp in July 2021, and since then, QuickBooks customers have imported more than 400,000 customer contacts into their Mailchimp accounts to use for customer segmentation and marketing. In the coming months, the two brands will complete a deeper integration, enabling the syncing of customer purchase data between QuickBooks and Mailchimp and tailored recommendations to help small businesses optimize their marketing efforts.
“The combination of Mailchimp and QuickBooks together will create a robust engine for small and mid-market success,” Alex Chriss, executive vice president and general manager of Intuit’s small business and self-employed group, said. “With Mailchimp and QuickBooks combined, our customers can leverage their purchase data to glean better insights about how and who to market to so they can grow their businesses.”
“Over the past 20 years, Mailchimp has been on a tremendous journey empowering small businesses to grow,” Ben Chestnut, co-founder and CEO of Mailchimp, said. “Joining Intuit is like a mid-air refueling that will allow us to accelerate our shared mission and help our customers prosper. I can’t wait to co-pilot this next leg of our journey.”
Morgan Stanley served as Intuit’s financial advisor, and Latham & Watkins served as its legal advisor. Qatalyst Partners served as Mailchimp’s exclusive financial advisor, and King & Spalding served as its legal advisor.