Trello, hello, hello: Todo list biz gobbled by Atlassian for $425m

Freemium biz model to be retained

Freemium digital post-it business board Trello is to be acquired by productivity software floggers Atlassian.

The deal is worth $425m, according to TechCrunch, with the productivity software business to pay $360m in cash and $65m in restricted shares and options for Trello. The deal is expected to close by the end of March 2017.

Trello, released by Fog Creek Software in 2011 as a web app and spun out in 2014, is based in New York and has over 100 employees - who will now join Atlassian. It also has roughly 19 million users.

It is expected that Trello will also continue to be offered as a standalone service following Trello's current freemium model. It is also expected that Kanban's work and workflow visualization tool board, which complements Atlassian's JIRA project management service, may incorporate Trello elements.

Atlassian's chief executive officer, Mike Cannon-Brookes, announced the acquisition today, stating: "Trello will become an important part of the Atlassian portfolio, offering a fun new way for teams to organize the often messy range of information that feeds into great teamwork."

Trello's Michael Pryor told users: "As part of Atlassian, Trello will be able to leverage investments in R&D that will enhance the product in meaningful ways. Our team will be able to focus on improving the core experience of Trello for all users. We are certain that Atlassian understands the unique and novel reasons why Trello is so successful and well-loved."

This is Atlassian's largest ever acquisition, and the second following its IPO in 2015, with Atlassian buying StatusPage for an undisclosed amount last year. ®

PS: We assume Trello will get its trademarks in order quick smart now that it's been snapped up for about half a billion dollars.