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Sinch fuels MessageMedia to become the world’s preferred mobile messaging partner for SMBs with US $1.3 billion acquisition
Sinch (publ), a global leader in cloud communications for mobile customer engagement, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MessageMedia, a leader in mobile messaging solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, for a total enterprise value of USD $1.3 billion.
Australian-founded MessageMedia offers a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite that makes it easy for businesses to leverage two-way messaging without any need for coding or familiarity with APIs. Headquartered in Melbourne, MessageMedia serves over 60,000 customers and handles more than 5 billion mobile messages per year.
MessageMedia CEO Paul Perrett said Sinch’s product, values and global strength in servicing large and enterprise customers, are highly complementary to MessageMedia.
“This is an exciting day for the MessageMedia team and our customers,” Perrett said. “It’s an incredible reinforcement of the world-class people, products and capability we have in place at MessageMedia.”
“The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and even after close of the transaction MessageMedia will continue to operate as a separate business unit, but with a supercharged mission to become the global leader for SMB messaging under Sinch.”
“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved to date, but with Sinch, I believe it’s just the start.”
Since Grant Rule, Justin Lau and Regina Hill founded the business in 2000 to capitalise on the vast potential of the humble text message, MessageMedia has consistently grown to become the Australian market leader while expanding into new markets. Completing nine successful acquisitions, most recently with SimpleTexting in the US, the business has proven its capability to successfully grow and consolidate.
Following completion, Sinch CEO Oscar Werner said they will look to accelerate MessageMedia’s efforts, encourage international expansion, and task the MessageMedia management team to build a leading position as the preferred mobile messaging vendor for small and medium-sized businesses around the world.
“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 have the best team in the industry to capitalise on that opportunity”, Werner said.
With a go-to-market approach built around digital customer acquisition and online self-service, MessageMedia operates a highly automated and scalable tech platform that is purposefully tailored to meet the specific needs of small and medium-sized businesses.
MessageMedia Co-founder Grant Rule said: “It’s been a remarkable journey over the last two decades, from launching our first web-based SMS gateway in 2001 and entering the US in 2007, to now supporting more than 60,000 small and medium sized businesses worldwide and sending over 420 million messages a month in 200+ countries.”
“Our success has been born out of a love for technology and problem-solving with our customers and it’s those values which will see our growth continue with Sinch.”
MessageMedia solutions include SMS alerts and notifications, billing and payments, appointment reminders, marketing, and staff scheduling, leveraged through integrations with platforms like Shopify, HubSpot and NetSuite deployed by savvy businesses in healthcare, hospitality, education, real estate, retail, utilities, and dozens of industries.
