SEO software provider Moz has been acquired by email marketing company iContact with plans to continue offering both sets of tools.
Moz was launched in 2004 and has since grown to become one of the most popular SEO software suites.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but plans for the future of the Moz brand are shared in an interview with the President of iContact Marketing Corp, Michael Pepe.
The most important takeaway for Moz users is the brand will remain in tact and its software will continue being offered.
In fact, iContact intends to improve on Moz’s current offerings and combine them with its email marketing software.
Here’s more on what’s known about the Moz & iContact deal at this point.
Moz Acquired By iContact: All The Details So Far
Who is iContact?
iContact is an email marketing brand and a subsidiary of J2 Global. Sister brands include Campaigner, SMTP, Communicator, and Kickbox, which are all focused on providing email marketing tools for small to medium-sized businesses.
To put in perspective how big iContact is, Pepe says its software delivered 68 billion emails last year. J2 Global is a publicly traded company, listed on the NASDAQ as JCOM.
Why is iContact acquiring Moz?
Pepe shares the reasons why iContact was interested in acquiring Moz, with the primary reason being that they focus on serving the same customers.
“If we ask our customers, which we do routinely, what the number one tool that they need, beyond email, it’s undoubtedly SEO. So there’s a great pairing of SEO and email marketing.”
Pepe adds that he sees Moz as a value-driven company, and this acquisition will make it possible to add more value to both companies’ customer bases.
What is iContact going to do with Moz?
Exact plans for the Moz brand are unclear at this point, other than it will definitely remain in tact.
Pepe alludes to the idea of combining components of the tools offered by Moz and iContact to support all needs of their customers.
“And particularly in this day and age, you know, we live in a complex ecosystem that involves our customers, our colleagues, our partners. And to be able to think about supporting all of their needs and having all of those components thrive I think has really been an agenda on Moz’s part and one that we believe in wholeheartedly ourselves…
And so I think that we not only share values, but we have a shared future together.”
Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz, says she’s confident Moz will continue to thrive and believes iContact understands the value of SEO.
In a post on the iContact blog, the company says it intends to accelerate plans to build more SEO products:
“The mission of iContact and its sister brands, Campaigner, SMTP and Kickbox, which together operate as a subsidiary of J2 Global (NASDAQ: JCOM), is to help businesses grow and engage with customers. The resources and talent across this digital marketing portfolio should help Moz accelerate product plans to build SEO and other digital marketing products that can change the industry.”
No further information is available at this time.
What does the SEO community think about the acquisition?
The SEO community recognizes the size and reach of iContact, and appears to see the acquisition as a good thing for the future of SEO and email marketing tools.
Here’s a selection of tweets related to the acquisition announcement:
What news! Congratulations @Moz team, @SarahBird, @randfish and @iContact. Looking forward to the new beginning of SEO and Email. https://t.co/fks88V8Ixu pic.twitter.com/rnWNhd4nx0
— Himani Kankaria (@himani_kankaria) June 4, 2021
As someone who spoke at MozCon 2016 and used to contribute to your esteemed blog, I'm very happy for the company and community!
— Samuel Scott (@samueljscott) June 4, 2021
Congrats to everyone at Moz, great to see SEO software playing in the big leagues!
— Barry Adams 📰 (@badams) June 4, 2021
That's very exciting, congratulations. I hope it means many great things for the team and the platform, and accelerates good ideas.
— Heather Physioc (@HeatherPhysioc) June 4, 2021
