....Xero chief executive Rod Drury labelled the acquisition a “desperation move” by MYOB to bolster flagging revenue streams from BankLink ahead of a float. BankLink had been haemorrhaging New Zealand customers to Xero for some time.
New Zealand accountants’ traditional “soft spot” for BankLink will evaporate once it was owned by MYOB, Drury said.
“This is very exciting for us,” he told BusinessDesk. Dual-listed Xero’s share price has risen a staggering 81 percent this year, to value the company at $1.61 billion, despite not yet having made a profit, based on investor judgements about its strong customer growth and global potential.
Drury says Xero provides bank feeds, along with offering “accountant-side” software for free, whereas MYOB has always charged accountants for its software.
Drury did not reveal Xero’s Australian market share, but said Xero was “where all the growth is happening”. The company reported 219 percent customer growth in Australia in the year to March 31, making it the largest contributor to a doubling of customer numbers to 157,000 globally, 6,000 of whom Xero says are accounting firms....
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