Intuit Inc. is in talks to acquire email marketing firm Mailchimp Inc. for a sum north of $10 billion, according to a report late today from Bloomberg.

Mailchimp was first reported to be in acquisition talks Aug. 12. At the time, it was said that Mailchimp had received interest from private equity firms and unnamed “large technology firms.”

If the Bloomberg report is correct, one of those large technology firms is Intuit. Best known as the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, Intuit is the arguable king of American tax software with a market capitalization of $154.7 billion as of the close of trading today.

Intuit has also been a voracious acquirer of smaller companies. According to data from market watcher Tracxn, Inuit has made 34 acquisitions, the most recent being the purchase of OneSaas in February.

The Bloomberg report does note that no final decision has been made and discussions could fall through. In addition, another buyer could also emerge for the company and others are said to be interested.

Mailchimp, founded in the ashes of the dot-com boom in 2001, has become nearly synonymous with online email marketing. The company rightly claims that it’s the world’s leading marketing automation platform for small to medium-sized businesses.It also offers marketing tools, analytics and more.

Over the years, Mailchimp has expanded into broader marketing software. The company provides software that allows online retailers to link the email service to their e-commerce websites and automatically send customers promotions at opportune moments. For new businesses, Mailchimp offers tools that they can use to create an online store from scratch and launch digital ad campaigns.

It’s also a profitable business. Mailchimp generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $300 million last year. In 2019, the company disclosed that it was on track to reach annual revenue of $700 million.

Remarkably, Mailchimp has never raised venture capital funding. A rarity among tech startups — although calling it a startup is a stretch — the company was bootstrapped from day one. Perhaps even rarer, it managed to do so over 20 years by being profitable.

Photo: Mailchimp