BlackLine, the accounting automation software provider, has announced the acquisition of FourQ Systems, a leader in intercompany financial management technology, for $165m, plus earnout consideration of up to $75m over the next three years subject to certain financial performance milestones.
The deal enhances BlackLine’s existing intercompany accounting automation capabilities, further strengthening its position with the office of the controller by driving end-to-end automation of traditionally manual intercompany accounting processes and accelerating BlackLine’s long-term plan for transforming and modernizing finance and accounting (F&A).
Built by F&A and tax experts, FourQ’s intercompany financial management software delivers automated intercompany processing to help streamline the global operations of its customers. FourQ technology complements existing BlackLine functionality by adding advanced tax capabilities and improving regulatory compliance in areas such as statutory reporting and transfer pricing.
Marc Huffman, BlackLine CEO, said: “Intercompany accounting is one of the biggest distractions for finance and accounting for multinational corporations. Hard to believe, but most companies are still using legacy, repetitive and manual processes to manage intercompany, exposing their businesses to unnecessary costs, significant compliance risks, and missed working capital and tax opportunities. F&A must become more agile to respond to constantly evolving market dynamics and regulatory needs—but they’re often buried in tactical transactional work and intercompany disputes. Intercompany challenges are not new but with increasingly complex global business models and regulatory scrutiny, demand for intercompany transformation is higher than ever.”
Varun Tejpal, co-founder and CEO of FourQ who will serve as managing director of Intercompany at BlackLine going forward, added: “FourQ and BlackLine share a vision to help optimise customers’ global operations for greater profitability and efficiency while freeing F&A teams to focus on strategic aspects of their business. At the same time, FourQ meets a need in the office of the controller that is highly complementary to BlackLine’s comprehensive financial operations management platform. I look forward to reducing the headaches caused by messy intercompany accounting processes and further cementing BlackLine’s market-leading position as we join forces to help customers continue to advance their intercompany journeys.”
