MYOB acquires rival Reckon’s accounting business for $180mn

MYOB, or Mind Your Own Business, has bought a sizable stake in Reckon, a competing accountancy software solutions business.

Valued at AU$180mn, the acquisition will see MYOB absorb roughly 50% of Reckon’s revenue generation – the product lines in question are Reckon APS, Reckon Elite and Reckon Docs, designed to help accounting departments and companies run their operations. Around 3,000 companies makes use of its suite of services.

Reckon has decided to take investment as it looks to upscale into the cloud, a move which requires heavy financial commitment that was not available to the company internally.

RELATED STORIES:

• Network Ten buyout imminent as NSW Supreme Court clears CBS takeover
• Accor offers $1.2bn to buy Mantra and merge Australia’s largest hotel operators
• Read the November edition of Business Review Australia magazine
   

The move appears to have been received well on the ASX, with Reckon’s share price up by a massive 25.6% on receipt on the news. MYOB’s shares closed up 0.9%.

MYOB has assured the 120 staff working on the three product lines that they will be offered jobs in the new regime, with the money from the deal being used to help Reckon pay down some of its debts.

The final hurdle to clear for the two parties comes in the form of approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.