SEO tool provider Moz has been acquired by iContact Marketing Corp, a subsidiary of the publicly traded company, J2 Global. Sarah Bird, Moz’s CEO, posted the announcement on the Moz blog Friday afternoon.
“Exciting news, Moz fans! We are thrilled to announce that Moz has been acquired by iContact Marketing Corp!” Bird wrote.
iContact was founded in 2003 and is based in Morrisville, North Carolina with about 300 employees. it is focused on email marketing and offers email tools through its brands Campaigner, SMTP and Kickbox. Moz was founded in 2004 and is based in Seattle. Bird took over as CEO in 2014 after Rand Fishkin, the co-founder of Moz stepped down from that role. In 2016, Moz did some downsizing after some possible missteps. In 2018, Fishkin stepped down from Moz to start a new startup, SparkToro.
This news comes after Semrush, a competing SEO toolset provider, went public a couple of months ago.
The acquisition price and deal terms were not disclosed, and a Moz contact told us “we will not be disclosing financial details of the acquisition.”
What’s next?. The company’s announcment said”Moz remains committed to continuing to improve the company’s all-in-one SEO toolset and maintaining the accuracy of the data upon which it is built.”
“Since the beginning, Moz has elevated SEO as a critical strategy for growth and brand recognition. With this news, our mission remains the same. Moz should only innovate faster and more effectively for our customers,” said Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz. “The shared focus on delivering powerful digital marketing solutions is a perfect fit for our brand, staff and community. We are excited to begin collaborating on new solutions for our collective customers.”
Why we care. Moz is one of the more reputable toolsets in the industry, so we hope this sale helps fund new features, tools and support options for customers. Organic search and email marketing are some of the most powerful marketing channels brands have, so it will be interesting to see how Moz and iContact’s tools integrate, if they ever do.
For members of the search community at Moz, many of whom have been featured here or at SMX, we hope the acquisition treats you well. All the messaging from the two companies suggest only positive things about this acquisition, as you’d expect. But that isn’t always what happens after takeovers.
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