Cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage giant Coinbase is rumored for being engaged in discussions to have bitcoin startup Earn.com.
Citing sources at the situation, CoinDesk reports the fact that San Francisco-based Coinbase — which reportedly garnered even more than $1 billion in revenue in 2009 — is involved in discussions to obtain Earn.com, a cryptocurrency-based paid messaging platform.
Earn.com — formerly 21.co — allows users to earn bitcoin by answering emails or completing tasks (that include registering for an expression airdrop). Conversely, users can develop service to spend on prominent individuals or topic experts to learn to read and answer their emails, which likely somewhat be ignored.
The sources cited in the publication gave wildly-varying estimates precisely how much Coinbase — a treadmill of the others interested in acquiring Earn.com — would end up paying for the startup. One claimed it could go at as little as $30 million, while another “who is directly involved with the discussions” claimed the fact that total equity the acquisition — which may include a compensation package derived from cash, cryptocurrency, stock, and earn-out — would likely exceed $120 million.
While the purchase is far using a done deal, the good news that Coinbase needs to leverage its capital to grow through acquisitions will not come as a shock.
Indeed, despite the fact that Coinbase has historically made few acquisitions, rumors about potential deals have abounded since the firm hired Emilie Choi — LinkedIn’s former head of mergers and acquisitions — since it’s new second in command of corporate and business development.
Choi oversaw much more than 40 such deals prior to leaving LinkedIn earlier this month, and he or she has signaled which she intends to keep busy once she has taken the reins at Coinbase.
“There many great pre-IPO companies, or tech titans, that aren’t so heavily related to M&A right now,” she told tech publication Recode. “Coinbase really is in a position to complete a lot of M&A.”