San Francisco, Dec 16 : GoDaddy has signed a pact to acquire California-based payments processor Poynt in a $365 million deal which includes $320 million in cash at closing and $45 million in deferred cash payments subject to certain performance and employment conditions over three years. The acquisition will help the Internet names and registrations management major to expand commerce services with integrated payments. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, GoDaddy said on Tuesday. "Commerce is critical to our customers and we continue to invest in building seamlessly intuitive experiences that enable small businesses to sell everywhere," GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani, said in a statement. "Poynt accelerates our strategy to provide a complete suite of commerce and payment services to address this critical customer need and focus on a large addressable market opportunity." The announcement comes at a time when rapid convergence of online and in-person consumer shopping is accelerating the need for small businesses to provide connected commerce experiences across all channels for their customers. Integrating Poynt with GoDaddy's websites, marketing and WordPress commerce services will enable small businesses to boost sales and customer satisfaction by bridging both online and offline shopping experiences, the company said. With global distribution via reseller partnerships, Poynt is used by more than 100,000 merchants with over $16 billion in annual Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV). It offers a suite of products needed for small businesses to sell and accept payments anywhere -- spanning point-of-sale (POS) systems, payments, invoicing, loyalty and rewards programmes, and transaction management. "Our team is super excited to join forces and help millions of GoDaddy entrepreneurs sell everywhere, in the most seamless experience possible, at a time they couldn't need it more," said Poynt CEO Osama Bedier. The Poynt CEO will join the GoDaddy leadership team and lead a new commerce division. /IANS