BILL Holdings Melio acquisition talks surfaced on November 8, 2023, when Bloomberg News reported the San Jose software firm was in advanced negotiations to acquire Israeli payments unicorn Melio for $1.95 billion. The next day, BILL issued a rare public denial. By the time the BILL Holdings Melio story closed in October 2025, Melio had been acquired by a completely different company at a higher price. Here are the five critical facts that defined the BILL Holdings Melio acquisition saga.
BILL Holdings Melio Talks Surfaced via Bloomberg
The story broke on the evening of November 8, 2023. Bloomberg reported that San Jose, California-based BILL was “putting the final touches on a cash-and-stock deal” for Melio that could be announced within the week. The report valued Melio at $1.95 billion. Sources described as people with knowledge of the matter said the transaction was at an advanced stage.
The BILL Holdings Melio coverage spread quickly across financial media. PYMNTS noted that Melio’s valuation had previously hit $4 billion in 2021, making the $1.95 billion figure a significant markdown. Furthermore, BILL had been dealing with a drop in spending among small and medium-sized businesses through 2023, and the timing raised eyebrows.
Melio’s investor base by late 2023 included Accel, Bessemer, General Catalyst, Coatue, Aleph and Tiger Global, with total funding to date of around $517 million. The 2021 round at the $4 billion mark had been co-led by Thrive Capital and General Catalyst. Many of those backers had taken paper losses through the 2022 to 2023 fintech valuation reset, so a $1.95 billion sale would have crystallised a notable haircut.
Stock Fell 16% on the Acquisition News
BILL’s share price reacted sharply. Shares dropped as much as 16% in extended trading on November 9, 2023, falling to around $54. Meanwhile, the company’s market capitalisation at the time sat near $6.6 billion. Investors appeared concerned that BILL was overpaying or making a poorly timed move given its existing growth slowdown.
The BILL Holdings Melio rumour also hit sentiment because BILL had already disappointed with its Q1 fiscal 2024 earnings the prior week. As a result, adding a $1.95 billion acquisition on top of softening guidance struck analysts as an aggressive bet. According to Bloomberg Law coverage, shares pared losses only after the formal denial landed later that day.
The financial firepower question also surfaced. BILL had around $1.84 billion in debt and roughly $2.65 billion in cash on the balance sheet as of September 2023. While a $1.95 billion deal was technically fundable, the company had already spent $2.5 billion in 2021 acquiring expense management firm Divvy. Another large acquisition so soon after Divvy concerned investors focused on integration risk and dilution.
The Denial Statement Was Unusually Direct
At 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 9, 2023, BILL Holdings issued a public statement denying the report. The company said it was “not pursuing such an acquisition at this time” and noted that commenting on market rumours ran counter to its general policy. Crucially, the company chose to break that policy precisely because the speculation was moving the stock.
The BILL Holdings Melio denial was unusual in two respects. First, BILL departed from its stated policy of staying silent on speculation. Second, the language was specific and unambiguous rather than the hedged corporate boilerplate typically used in such situations. Following the statement, shares recovered some of the day’s losses.
BILL Executives Confirmed the Position Days Later
President and CFO John Rettig reinforced the denial at an investor conference on November 22, 2023. Speaking on a webcast hosted by Autonomous Research analyst Ken Suchoski, Rettig told investors the company would not be doing transformational acquisitions at current valuations. “We would not do a $2 billion or whatever deal at our current valuation,” Rettig said.
Additionally, Rettig laid out how BILL planned to reach more small businesses without large M&A. The BILL Holdings Melio rumour did not reflect a strategy shift. Instead, the company would continue using direct platform onboarding for larger SMBs and partnerships with accounting firms and banks for smaller ones. Rettig also flagged that BILL’s existing growth profile, with revenue growth set to slow from 33% in Q1 fiscal 2024 to between 13% and 17% in Q2, made a transformational deal harder to justify to public market investors.
BILL Holdings Melio Story Ended with a Xero Deal
The Melio chapter eventually closed in 2025, but not with BILL Holdings. On June 24, 2025, New Zealand-based accounting software provider Xero announced a $2.5 billion deal to acquire Melio outright. Additional contingent consideration of up to $500 million was payable to Melio employees over three years.
Xero completed the transaction on October 15, 2025, more than two years after the BILL Holdings Melio rumour first broke. The Xero deal closed at a higher headline price than Bloomberg’s original $1.95 billion figure. By that point Melio was a much larger business operationally, serving roughly 80,000 customers and processing over $30 billion in payments in fiscal 2025, with revenues of $153 million and annualised revenue of $187 million as of March 2025.
According to Payments Dive, Melio CEO Matan Bar took the lead on Xero’s combined US business after closing. Meanwhile, Calcalist reported that the three Melio co-founders each earned over $150 million from the exit.
For more deal coverage, see FintechBits reporting on SEBI board meeting reforms shaping market rumour disclosure rules in India, the SEBI rumour deadline extension, and the corporate acquisitions category for ongoing deal news.
