Square is acquiring website builder Weebly for $365M

Square just announced that it’s reached an agreement to acquire Weebly for $365 million in cash and stock.

While Square is best known for its payment software and hardware, it’s also been expanding into other areas, for example with the acquisition of food delivery service Caviar and corporate catering startup Zesty.

Weebly, meanwhile, offers easy-to-use website building tools. While those tools can be used by individuals (my personal website is built on Weebly), the company has increasingly focused on serving small businesses and e-commerce companies.

Meanwhile, competitor Squarespace raised $200 million at a $1.7 billion valuation at the end of last year.

Square says that by acquiring Weebly, it can create “one cohesive solution” for entrepreneurs looking to build an online and offline business. And since 40 percent of Weebly’s 625,000 paid subscribers are outside the U.S., the deal will help Square expand globally.

“Square and Weebly share a passion for empowering and celebrating entrepreneurs,” said Square CEO Jack Dorsey in the acquisition release. “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.”

Weebly was founded in 2007 by David Rusenko, Chris Fanini and Dan Veltr. (Rusenko, who’s still the company’s CEO, is pictured above.) According to Crunchbase, the company raised $35.7 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings, Baseline Ventures, Floodgate, Felicis, Ron Conway and Y Combinator.

Square says the acquisition price includes stock for Weebly founders and employees that will vest over a four-year period.

from iFeeltech IT News Mix4 https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/26/square-acquires-weebly/

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