Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ), a global company headquartered in San Francisco that creates tools to help sellers start, run, and grow their businesses, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Weebly for approximately $365 million.
Square will pay a mix of cash and stock for Weebly – a website builder ‘as-a-service’ that features an “easy” drag and drop interface, which can help users build professional looking websites in a matter of minutes with no prior technical knowledge required.
Weebly Cloud is a reseller platform currently used by 300 web hosting providers globally. They resell the Weebly cloud website builder to their customers. It’s also used by about 8,000 web pros and agencies building websites for their customers. Weebly would expand Square’s customer base globally and add a new recurring revenue stream. Weebly has millions of end customers and more than 625,000 paid subscribers.
“Square and Weebly share a passion for empowering and celebrating entrepreneurs,” said Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square. “Square began its journey with in-person solutions while Weebly began its journey online. Since then, we’ve both been building services to bridge these channels, and we can go even further and faster together.”
Free Website Hosting
Square will provide Weebly customers with access to the company’s ecosystem of managed payments, hardware, and software, which would complement Weebly’s services, including free website hosting, premium (paid) website design and hosting, online store, and marketing tools. Nearly 40% of Weebly’s paid subscribers are outside the U.S., which will help accelerate Square’s global expansion.
“Entrepreneurship gives an opportunity to people who were never given one,” said David Rusenko, CEO of Weebly. “Weebly has created technology that helps people bring their business idea to life online. Now, we will be expanding that vision to help entrepreneurs succeed beyond their website. I’m excited for Weebly to join Square and help build the future of commerce together.”
Square will continue to provide an open platform to offer sellers the flexibility to select and integrate the third-party solutions that are best for their business. Square offers more than 100 partner integrations across a range of third-party apps, including points of sale, accounting software, and other back-office systems.
The completion of this acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. The parties expect to close the transaction during the second quarter of 2018, and until close the two companies will continue to operate independently. Square was advised by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati while Weebly was advised by Cooley LLP and Qatalyst Partners.
Square was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Ireland, and the UK. Square enables sellers to accept card payments and also provides reporting and analytics, next-day settlement, and chargeback protection. Square’s point-of-sale software and other business services would help sellers manage inventory, locations, and employees; access financing; engage customers, and grow sales.
