Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Business
  3. News

Website builder Weebly to be snapped up by payments service Square

By
Weebly + Square

Mobile payments company Square announced on Thursday, April 25, that it’s buying website builder Weebly for $365 million in a mix of cash and stock.

Recommended Videos

Square, which is led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, will use the acquisition to expand the company’s services beyond its current offerings, giving small businesses the tools to create websites and online stores to build and promote their services. Weebly, with millions of customers around the world — more than 625,000 of them subscribers — looks set to boost Square’s customer base, especially overseas.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Among its services, Square offers merchants a credit card reader that enables a smartphone or tablet to act as a payment terminal, providing a cost-effective way for small-business owners to process credit card transactions. The system is popular with many brick-and-mortar merchants, and Square will now aim to show its users online opportunities for business expansion with support from Weebly.

Weebly customers, meanwhile, will be encouraged to access Square’s ecosystem of managed payments, hardware, and software, which complement its own services, among them free website hosting, premium website design and hosting, online store setup, and a range of marketing tools.

In a blog post, Weebly reassured its customers that nothing will change regarding their Weebly experience, with the company promising to continue with work on new features. It also stated that its customer service setup will remain unchanged, saying, “We’re just a phone call, chat, or email away.”

Square’s Alyssa Henry said in a release that “running a business is complex, and entrepreneurs around the world want powerful and intuitive tools. Whether they’re an artist, a winemaker, or a hairdresser, with Square and Weebly sellers will have one cohesive solution to build their business.”

Weebly CEO David Rusenko noted how Weebly has created technology “that helps people bring their business idea to life online,” adding that it’s now in a position to expand its vision “to help entrepreneurs succeed beyond their website.”

Dorsey, for his part, said Square and Weebly “share a passion for empowering and celebrating entrepreneurs,” adding, “Square began its journey with in-person solutions while Weebly began its journey online. Since then, we’ve both been building services to bridge these channels, and we can go even further and faster together.”

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of June following regulatory approvals.

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Dashlane simplifies digital credential management for people, teams and businesses
Dashlane credential management tool for teams featured image

Have you ever considered a credential management tool for your team or business? Allow me to explain. When it comes to digital and online safety, something you hear often is never to share your credentials, account details, or passwords with anyone. You're not supposed to share account details or passwords, even with people you know well. That's not necessarily because they can't be trusted, it's more that you never know how someone else will handle your sensitive information. If they stow it somewhere easily accessible, like in a plain text document on their desktop, it weakens your security and makes your accounts more vulnerable. Plus, there’s no telling who they’ll share that information with.

Keeping your logins to yourself is also how you’re advised to protect professional or business accounts in the workplace. But it makes things more difficult, especially when you’re working with a team. Sometimes, you need tool or platform logins to be available to everyone. There is a much better way to administrate password sharing, and most importantly, it doesn’t compromise security. The answer is a digital credential management tool like Dashlane.

Read more
Thanks to Squarespace Refresh website building has never been more intuitive
squarespace refresh makes web building intuitive featured image

When it comes to building and designing your own website, from scratch, there is a lot of trial and error involved. Believe me, I've been there. But what's more important as an entrepreneur and when you're trying to present your business, big or small, is that the presentation has to be decidedly professional. It needs to be attractive and user-friendly, with easy access to everything that's most important for your business. Whether that's a section to browse available products, checkout, learn more about you and the team, or something else entirely. It's a lot of work and requires a lot of time invested. It's so much easier to have a templatized and convenient builder handy.

That's precisely where you can turn to something like Squarespace, which makes it so much easier to build the website of your dreams. But even more exciting is Squarespace's 2024 Refresh announcement. A product showcase, the brand says it creates a "new era for entrepreneurs." From new design tools with AI-powered features to enhanced business solutions to bring your business websites to the next level, the goal is to elevate your experiences and those of your visitors or customers. Let's take a closer look.

Read more
The 10 best VPN services for 2024, reviewed by experts
Surfshark VPN on Mac protecting user data.

You rely on the internet to stay connected to friends, family, and coworkers, monitor the news, shop, pay bills, and more. That makes privacy and security more important than ever, and a virtual private network (VPN) is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective ways to hide your location and safeguard your online activities from unwanted network intruders.

But if you're having trouble choosing the right VPN service for your budget and security needs, don't worry: We can help. Below, you'll find a list of the best VPNs around. Our comprehensive guide to the best VPN services covers pricing, features, and all the information you need to make an informed decision.

Read more