Drea Knufken
Financial software company Intuit has purchased personal finance website Mint.com for $170 million. The New York Times has more:
Mint, which unveiled its free online services in September 2007, quickly became popular as more people turned to the Web to create budgets and manage their finances. The company says it has 1.5 million users tracking nearly $50 billion in assets and $200 billion in transactions.
“As Mint’s product grew in popularity, it became clear it wasn’t a question of if Intuit would acquire them anymore, but one of when and how much,” said Jeff Clavier, founder of SoftTech VC, an early-stage investment company that backed Mint.
Although Mint.com and Quicken Online are rival services, the companies say they will continue to operate the two sites independently, and incorporate some of Mint’s features into Intuit’s services.
“We were much better served by having Mint and its leadership as part of Intuit instead of trying to build it separately,” said Dan Maurer, senior vice president of Intuit’s consumer group. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, but the companies said they hoped to close the deal by the end of the year.
