Atlassian has kicked off 2017 with a bang, today announcing its acquisition of Trello for US$425 million ($577 million) to further its mission to help teams work better. The deal, expected to close this quarter, consists of US$360 million in cash and US$65 million in shares and options.
Founded through Fog Creek Software five years ago and spun out on its own in 2014, Trello is the maker of project management software helping teams collaborate through virtual post-it notes and digital whiteboards. The company, which has raised just over $10 million in external funding, has 19 million registered users, with almost half coming in the last year.
The Trello team, around 100 employees, will join Atlassian following the deal’s closing. The Trello service will continue to be offered as a standalone product, while integrations with Atlassian products will also be developed.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, cofounder and co-CEO of Atlassian, stated that the acquisition, the company’s largest to date, will help further Atlassian’s mission to “unleash the potential in every team”.
“Atlassian tools are built to help all teams organize, discuss and complete their work. By adding Trello to the Atlassian family, we’re giving teams more choice in the tools they use to support the way that they want to work,” he wrote.
Michael Pryor, CEO of Trello, said the two companies “share a philosophy of empowering teams everywhere to work in their own style”.
He said, “We are certain that Atlassian understands the unique and novel reasons why Trello is so successful and well-loved.”
Cannon-Brookes added that the companies have identical milestones: for their tools to reach 100 million monthly active users.
With Atlassian’s products traditionally popular among developers, the addition of Trello to its suite will help expand the company’s reach to teams operating in a wider variety of functions.
Boasting over 1 million daily active users working at organisations such as Pixar, Adobe, and the Red Cross, Trello states that more than 50 percent of its users work in non-technical functions and that it is especially popular with business teams, including finance, HR, legal, marketing, and sales.
Joining Atlassian, Pryor said Trello will be able to leverage investments in R&D that will further “enhance the product in meaningful ways” and in turn be able to focus on improving the Trello experience for users.
Cannon-Brookes said, “Deep investments in R&D have long been a cornerstone of Atlassian’s business and we will continue that tradition with Trello.”
Further details about the acquisition will be disclosed later this month during Atlassian’s second quarter earnings call.
Image: Michael Pryor. Source: The Pitchdeck.
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