Intuit has a stack to send invoices and receive payments from customers via email. Mailchimp has a stack that allows non-technical users to create complex emails, lists, track opens and responses. Together, this would allow a small business to build and monetize an email list of customers. They are creating an ecommerce channel via email to augment/compete with web stores.

I think SMB is exactly what it's about. I wouldn't be surprised if they go for Squarespace or Wix next.

Intuit want Mailchimp's data.

My guess is SaaS to SMB.

Intuit Inc. is an American business that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. As of 2019, more than 95% of its revenues and earnings come from its activities within the United States.[3] Intuit's products include the tax preparation application TurboTax, personal finance app Mint and the small business accounting program QuickBooks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuit

I feel the same - Cue the pundits in the business press writing articles titled "Why the Intuit acquisition of Mailchimp makes sense" as if they would have predicted it years prior.

i think that _is_ synergy.

we often think of synergy being where you can apply your skill in solving problem Y to problem X even though the markets for those solutions are wildly different.

but you can also think about the "thing" as being "selling to a particular category of customer". you can cross sell, bundle, gain some forms of economy of scale.

this is basically the internet equivalent of WB Mason selling you toner, coffee, paper, chairs, and water coolers.

they are moving into ecommerce. They've acquired tradegecko last yr and rebranded it as quickbooks commerce.

Also, if you look at mailchimp recent product changes with addition of MC stores, they are positioning themselves to compete against ecommerce platforms. This could be planned beforehand to be part of the package for the acquisition.

It's counter intuitive, but the best acquisitions are the ones with little synergy where the acquirer pretty much invests money in the acquiree and leaves them alone to continue as they were, but with a bigger budget.

Whatever their other reasons, it seems certain they’re enriching user data for tracking and resale.

They're really into it heheheh