Blackbaud to acquire Convio 2

IT | Kirsty Weakley | 18 Jan 2012

US software provider Blackbaud has announced it plans to acquire Convio for roughly $312m, forming one of the largest software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors in the market.

The two software providers have entered into a definitive merger agreement and the deal, which was supported unanimously by both boards, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.

Blackbaud will buy all Convio’s outstanding shares of common stock for $16 per share and will finance the deal through a combination of cash and debt.

Marc Chardon, president and CEO of Blackbaud said: “The addition of Convio will broaden Blackbaud's application portfolio, enabling the combined company to offer a comprehensive set of multi-channel supporter engagement solutions to non-profit organizations of all sizes.”

Following the acquisition Convio’s president and CEO, Gene Austin, will take a role on leadership position at Blackbaud reporting to Chardon.

Austin said that the company had previously received requests from users to integrate Convio’s fundraising solutions with Blackbaud’s CRM software, and said that: “We will now be able to meet this market demand and provide both our customer bases with access to a broad and deep application suite designed specifically for non-profit organisations.”

In October 2011 Blackbaud acquired the Austrailian peer-to-peer fundraising platform Everyday Hero. And last summer Convio acquired the UK digital strategy agency Baigent Digital, which has since become Convio UK.

Convio UK provides online marketing solutions to UK charities including Unicef, Cancer Research UK and Action for Children and plans to introduce the introduce the Convio TeamRaiser events fundraising product line to the UK market in early 2012.

Place a comment

Steve
Director
Purple Vision
18 Jan 2012

Having supported Blackbaud technologies and clients for many years, and with a keen eye on Convio’s recent activity, at Purple Vision we think this deal could be a good thing. Common Ground has been described as “Raiser’s Edge in the Cloud”. If this turns out to be true, it could be a tremendous kick-start for digital fundraising, and a great opportunity for fundraisers everywhere.

[Reply]

Keith Collins
Systems Director
Purple Vision
18 Jan 2012

Enormous, enormous news for the non-profit technology world - and potentially excellent news for both Blackbaud and Convio's clients - Convio's products provide some cutting edge stuff related to social CRM, multi-channel integration, mobile, ease of use and openness of platform - just what the sector is crying out for, and this deal should accelerate their adoption

[Reply]

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