Intuit Buys Mint.com

Intuit Inc. (INTU) recently agreed to acquire California-based provider of online personal financial services Mint.com for $170 million. Founded in 2007, Mint.com is a free tool which currently serves nearly 1.5 million people by allowing them to manage finances in one place along with providing tips for maintaining budgets and saving money. The privately held company charges financial services firms for recommending services to their customers.

Intuit is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, financial institutions, consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services include QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax.

Mint.com was a direct competitor for Intuit’s Quicken Online. The company said alongside its Quicken Online offerings, it will keep Mint.com as the primary online personal finance management service offered directly to consumers. Mint.com’s unique ‘ways to save’ engine generates a revenue stream while keeping the product free to end users.

Intuit plans to integrate this capability across its businesses to accelerate its ability to help customers in managing their money quickly and efficiently. After the transaction is completed, Mint.com will become part of Intuit’s Consumer Group, which includes both Quicken and TurboTax products. Mint.com’s founder Aaron Patzer will become General Manager of the Personal Finance group.

Management expects to close the deal by the fourth quarter of 2009. Intuit expects to lower its fiscal 2010 EPS (excluding one-time charges) guidance by about 2 cents. Management does not see a material effect of the acquisition on fiscal 2011 earnings. With this acquisition, Intuit will gain a fast-growing consumer brand and highly successful Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.

We believe that this acquisition will strengthen the company’s position as a leading provider of fast growing consumer SaaS. Following the exit of Microsoft (MSFT) from the personal finance space, Intuit has significant opportunity to build on its market share.

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