Sinch enters SMB market with $1.3bn MessageMedia acquisition

Sinch AB (publ), a global cloud communications firm for mobile customer engagement, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MessageMedia, a worldwide mobile messaging solutions company for small and medium-sized businesses in the United States and Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.

Sinch will pay a total enterprise value of $1.3bn, with a total cash consideration of $1.1bn and 1,128,487 new shares in Sinch.

MessageMedia offers a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite that makes it easy to leverage two-way messaging without any need for coding or familiarity with API:s.

It operates a highly automated and scalable tech platform that is purposefully tailored to meet the specific needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

With a go-to-market motion built around digital customer acquisition and online self-service, the company serves over 60,000 customers and handles more than five billion mobile messages per year.

Organic growth is fueled both by net expansion and new customer acquisition. Performance is particularly strong in the United States, where more than 1,500 new customers are added each month.

“Addressing small and medium-sized businesses opens up a new avenue to growth and dramatically expands our addressable market. With MessageMedia as a part of Sinch, we will have the best team in the industry to capitalize on that opportunity”, comments Oscar Werner, Sinch CEO.

“Mobile messaging delivers tremendous ROI but smaller businesses often lack tools that cater to their specific needs”, comments Paul Perrett, MessageMedia CEO. “Serving these customers presents a tremendous opportunity, and with Sinch we can build a global leader in our field.”

Handelsbanken Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor and K&L Gates LLP as legal advisor to Sinch in the transaction. J.P. Morgan is acting as financial advisor and Herbert Smith Freehills as legal advisor to MessageMedia.