Mobile payment company Square announced a $365 million deal Thursday to acquire Weebly, an online platform for building websites. The two companies have long been integrated through a partnership, and Square services will continue to be easy to access on the Weebly platform after the acquisition.
Square is best known for its sleek, white payment hardware that allows business owners to accept credit and debit cards anywhere. The company, founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, had a disastrous IPO in 2015. Despite the rough start, the newly public company has steadily grown since and shares have already risen 35 percent this year.
Weebly competes with companies like Squarespace and Wix — all three offer simple drag-and-drop tools for website building. However, Weebly focuses on e-commerce and small businesses.
Square CFO Sarah Friar told TechCrunch that the acquisition was simply a case of “serendipity,” as the companies have been working together for several years. She noted that Square would not be jumping into a wave of acquisitions, and is still focusing on “a build path and a partner path.”