Shopify, the ecommerce platform which powers online shopfronts for merchants and retailers, has made an acquisition. The Canadian company has announced that it will be taking control of a Swedish ecommerce marketplace called Tictail this week.
There are no details available about the terms of the deal or the financial arrangements. No information about price is being offered.
If you don’t know Tictail, here’s what they say about what they do:
Our marketplace is a one-stop destination for fashion, art, and home decor from small businesses around the world. Whether you’re browsing from home or on the go, Tictail offers a global shopping experience unlike any other, bringing small businesses from every corner of the world straight to you.
– Tictail
And they have said of the deal to other media outlets:
We’re really excited to share the news that Tictail is joining Shopify! While Shopify does not comment on individual acquisitions, they do periodically acquire companies, to bring specific talent or technology into the organisation to complement and enhance their existing offerings.
– Tictail statement
Reading up on the chat and comment about this deal, it would seem that Tictail investors are not enthusiastic about the buy-out. Not least because it looks like that Tictail will be absorbed into Shopify and entirely shut down and unbranded. Also, interestingly, neither company has issued a statement or press release about the deal that has been done and has solely responded to requests for comment.
And all that does raise the question what the reasoning is behind the acquisition and what that might be. It could be about technology, and a product or function that Tictail has developed, or it could also be about personnel or patents too. That is currently unknown. But what is notable here is that Shopify remains confident about its future, even in the face of Adobe’s acquisition of Magento which made pundits curious if the smaller player could continue to flourish.
