03:52 PM
More Details Emerge on Intuit Acquisition of Mint.com
Intuit and Mint.com
"With this transaction, Intuit will gain another fast-growing consumer brand and a highly successful Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that helps people save and make money," said Brad Smith, Intuit CEO, in a statement. "This move will enhance Intuit's position as a leading provider of consumer SaaS offerings that connect customers across desktop, online and mobile."
Intuit says Mint.com's capabilities can be applied broadly to millions of Intuit consumer and small business customers. Furthermore, Intuit expects the deal to benefit its financial institution clients as they seek to strengthen their online offerings. Mint.com's unique "ways to save" engine generates a revenue stream while keeping the product free to end users. Intuit intends to integrate this capability across its businesses.
Intuit plan to keep both the Mint.com and Quicken Online offerings, with each serving separate and equally important purposes. Mint.com will become the primary online personal finance management service that is offered directly to consumers by Intuit. Quicken Online will connect Quicken customers across desktop, online and mobile to deliver anytime-anywhere access. This will help accelerate Intuit's ability to create products and services that make managing money easier for all Intuit customers, the company says.
"The Intuit/Mint.com announcement shows how you have to be constantly innovating," Financial Insights research director, consumer banking and credit, Marc DeCastro, told BS&T. "This represents the next wave in online banking. Put the analytics and reporting around your current online banking offerings and enhance these platforms in that manner. This is how you get your clients from higher cost delivery channels to the lower cost ones. This deal is very telling and will be interesting to watch."
Mint.com will become part of Intuit's Consumer Group, which includes both Quicken and TurboTax products. Aaron Patzer, Mint.com's founder and CEO, will become GM of the Personal Finance group reporting to Dan Maurer, SVP of Intuit's Consumer Group. Patzer will be responsible for online, desktop and mobile consumer personal finance offerings.
The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009 and is subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions. Following the closing of the transaction, Intuit expects to reduce its fiscal year 2010 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share guidance by approximately 2 cents and its GAAP diluted earnings per share guidance by approximately 3 cents. Intuit does not expect the acquisition to have a material effect on fiscal year 2011 earnings.