In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development.
This week, Intuit acquired Credit Karma, Uber gained Postmates, and Salesforce plans to buy Slack Technologies.
Intuit gains Credit Karma
Intuit announced that it has completed its acquisition of Credit Karma, Inc. for $7.1 billion. The deal was able to close after the Department of Justice required Credit Karma to divest its tax business, Credit Karma Tax, to Square Inc.
Intuit already owns TurboTax, and the consolidation of digital do-it-yourself tax services would substantially lessen competition in what is an 11$ billion dollar industry, according to the department. Intuit controlled 67% of that DIY tax preparation market in 2019, and any company that controls over 70% of a market is deemed a monopoly.
Intuit also owns an accounting software producer, QuickBooks and personal financial management company, Mint. The acquisition of Credit Karma gives Intuit a boost in fin-tech, with more than 2,600 data points on each of Credit Karma’s customers, such as Social Security numbers and outstanding loans.
Uber acquires Postmates
Uber has announced it completed its $2.65 billion acquisition of food and grocery delivery platform Postmates. According to Uber, the consumer-facing apps for Postmates and Uber Eats will continue to operate separately, but will be supported by a combined network of merchants and delivery drivers.
Postmates is one of the smaller food delivery companies in the U.S., behind competitors like Grubhub and DoorDash.
CEO and co-founder of Postmates Bastian Lehmann will work alongside Uber Eats and use Uber’s market strength to grow the brand. Together, the two companies will reportedly create the second-largest food delivery service in the U.S., behind DoorDash.
Salesforce plans to buy Slack
Enterprise software giant Salesforce.com announced that it is acquiring workplace communication app developer Slack Technologies Inc. for $27.7 billion.
The cash-and-stock transaction is the largest acquisition in Salesforce’s 21-year history, and it is almost twice as large as its acquisition of Tableau Software in 2019. Salesforce has greatly expanded its reach in recent years, and become one of the most valuable software companies in the world.
Slack, which went public just last year through a direct listing, has become a major player in the workforce communication space with 12 million daily active users.
Salesforce has been trying to offer workplace collaboration tools for years—the company acquired Chatter in 2010 and word process app Quip Inc. in 2016. Neither products were able to generate any meaningful success for Salesforce.
With the acquisition of Slack, Salesforce will finally get its workplace collaboration tool and bolster its offerings to compete with rival Microsoft, who has been the go-to software vendor for businesses.
In Other News
That’s not all. There are many more deals to pay attention to this week:
- The global leader in seasoning and flavor, McCormick has completed its deal to acquire Cholula hot sauce from private equity company L Catterton for $800 million.
- ViacomCBS is offloading its publishing company, Simon & Schuster, to Bertelsmann’s Penguin Random House in a deal worth nearly $2.18 billion.
- B&G Foods, Inc. has finalized a deal to acquire Crisco oils and shortening business from the J.M. Smucker Co. in a cash transaction valued at approximately $550 million.
- Visa has finalized a deal to acquire YellowPepper, a Miami-based company which works with startups in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- KIND LLC is acquiring “better-for-you” snack company Nature’s Bakery. The deal comes right on the heels of Mars, Incorporated’s acquisition of KIND just two weeks ago.
- S&P Global Inc., best known for providing debt ratings to countries and companies, has agreed to buy financial data provider IHS Markit Ltd. for $44 billion.
- Facebook Inc. announced that it is acquiring customer service management startup Kustomer.
- FedEx Corp. has agreed to acquire ShopRunner, an e-commerce service that provides shipping for more than 100 brands including heavy hitters such as Saks Fifth Ave and Bloomingdale’s.
- For the second time Thoma Bravo, LP is taking an interest in Flexera, an IT asset management company based in Chicago.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon, Inc. is holding exclusive acquisition discussions with podcast startup Wondery.
- San Francisco-based food delivery service company DoorDash, Inc. revealed in a filing on Monday that it is looking to raise $2.8 billion from its initial public offering, giving the food delivery app a valuation of $32 billion.
