Category Archives: Software News

Intuit Completes Acquisition of Mint.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) has completed its acquisition of Mint.com, a fast-growing provider of online personal finance services based in Mountain View, Calif. The transaction, announced Sept. 14, is valued at approximately $170 million and enhances Intuit’s position as a leading provider of consumer, software-as-a-service offerings that connect customers across desktop, online and mobile.

Intuit and Mint.com together will help redefine personal finance, delivering innovative, easy-to-use online services that help consumers save and do more with their money. By integrating with Intuit, Mint.com quickly gains access to resources to accelerate both product development and growth.

It is expected that Mint.com’s innovative technology will be available broadly to millions of Intuit customers, starting with TurboTax¼ products for the upcoming 2009 tax season. With future product integrations, Mint.com’s unique ‘ways to save’ engine will help consumers and small businesses make the most of their money, while categorization algorithms will make financial management easier. Intuit also expects that the acquisition of Mint.com will offer Intuit’s financial institution clients the ability to strengthen their online offerings and deliver more value to their customers.

With the transaction complete, Aaron Patzer, former CEO of Mint.com, becomes vice president and general manager of Intuit’s personal finance group, responsible for Mint.com and all Quicken online, desktop and mobile offerings. The combined team will continue to innovate and reinvent Intuit’s personal finance business, building on the assets of both Mint.com and Quicken.


“As the leader of Intuit’s new personal finance group, I’m looking forward to bringing together the best of Quicken and all we’ve learned at Mint.com to help people save and do more with their money,” said Patzer. “We have an opportunity to leverage new technologies and new user-interface design principles to impact more than 10 million Quicken users. Together with Intuit’s expertise in tax, bill-pay and banking, we can build powerful new online services that will make it easier for people to manage their money.”

Intuit will maintain both the Mint.com and Quicken brands, and continue to offer Quicken products. The company recently released Quicken 2010 Windows desktop and expects to release Quicken for Mac in early 2010. The current Mint.com service will remain free and becomes Intuit’s primary online personal finance management solution offered directly to consumers.

“We’re very excited about the future of personal finance,” said Dan Maurer, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Consumer Group. “We’re blending strong leadership, innovative technology, and the power of a well-known, trusted brand with a fresh user interface to create the next generation of personal finance offerings.”

Inclusive of the transaction, Intuit expects a reduction of approximately 2 cents to its fiscal year 2010 non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) diluted earnings per share and approximately 3 cents to its GAAP diluted earnings per share. Intuit does not expect the acquisition to have a material effect on fiscal year 2011 earnings.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooksÂź, QuickenÂź and TurboTaxÂź, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeriesÂź and LacerteÂź are Intuit’s leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. The company’s financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.2 billion in its fiscal year 2009. The company has approximately 7,800 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

About Mint.com

Mint.com is America’s #1 online personal finance service, providing over 1.5 million users a fresh, easy and intelligent way to manage their money. And it’s free. Launched in September 2007, Mint.com has quickly grown to track nearly $200 billion in transactions and $50 billion in assets and has identified more than $300 million in potential savings for its users.

Mint.com’s innovation is in applying advanced technology to deliver breakthrough ease-of-use. Using patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms, Mint.com allows users to see all their financial accounts in one place, makes it easy to set and keep to budgets, and helps identify money saving ideas. Mint.com is so effective that more than 90 percent of users say they have changed their financial habits as a result of using the service.

For more information on Mint.com’s free online personal finance service, please visit http://www.mint.com and follow Mint.com on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mint.

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Digital River to Power Global Online E-Commerce Stores for Ubisoft

MINNEAPOLIS–Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, announced that it signed a new e-commerce agreement with UbisoftÂź, a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products. Under the agreement, Digital River will be providing a full range of global e-commerce services to power stores throughout the U.S. and Europe that will support online consumer sales and digital downloads of Ubisoft’s popular brands, including Assassin’s CreedÂź and Tom Clancy’s Splinter CellÂź.

“We continue to expand our e-commerce leadership position in the global online gaming market,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “We offer publishers multiple revenue models in a single e-commerce solution. From in-store sales, to reoccurring billing and in-game commerce, the strength of our best-of-breed solution continues to attract top game publishers from around the world.”

Ubisoft’s EMEA chief operating officer, StĂ©phanie Perotti added, “In today’s market where an increasing number of consumers are making their purchases online, it is important for Ubisoft to equip itself with the best online e-commerce stores. Ubisoft is pleased to be partnering with Digital River, a provider who not only understands the particularities of the video game industry, but has proven its expertise time and time again.”

About Ubisoft

Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft is present in 28 countries and has sales in more than 55 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. For the 2008–2009 fiscal year, Ubisoft generated sales of 1.058 billion Euros. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.

About Digital River, Inc.

Digital River, Inc., a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, builds and manages online businesses for software and game publishers, consumer electronics manufacturers, distributors, online retailers and affiliates. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation. The company’s comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, fraud management, export controls, tax management, physical and digital product fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service, advanced reporting and strategic marketing services.

Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices across the U.S., Asia, Europe and South America. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com or call +1-952-253-1234.

Halloween’s Coming: Trick or Tweet from the FTC

Just in time for Halloween: The Federal Trade Commission has 12 Tweets about protecting yourself, your kids, and your computer when online.

If you tweet or update your status on a social networking page, the FTC hopes you’ll post one of these short messages about how to keep online goblins, ghouls, and ghosts away from your computer.

1. Are cyber ghouls and online scammers feasting on your computer? This Halloween, learn how to stop them at OnGuardOnline.gov.

2. Don’t let someone decide to be you for Halloween. Read more about online identity theft at OnGuardOnline.gov.

3. Don’t let computer security worries haunt you at night. OnGuardOnline.gov says download software updates and patches often.

4. Garlic? Stake through the heart? OnGuardOnline.gov says only the latest security software protects you from online vampires.

5. Zombie warning! Update your security software often to protect your computer from zombie bots. Read more at OnGuardOnline.gov.

6. Don’t let old security software spook you. Keep firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware software updated, and visit OnGuardOnline.gov.

7. Beware of online tricks this Halloween and enable your computer’s firewall. Find out more at OnGuardOnline.gov.

8. Don’t let a virus ruin your computer’s Halloween spirit. Visit OnGuardOnline.gov for tips to keep your computer virus-free.

9. Don’t be a “phish” for Halloween. Visit OnGuardOnline.gov to learn how to spot computer scams that try to hook your personal info.

10. When you tell kids about Halloween safety, tell them about online safety too. To learn how, read Net Cetera at OnGuardOnline.gov.

11. If you leave your laptop for ‘just a sec,’ it could become someone else’s Halloween treat. Visit OnGuardOnline.gov to learn more.

12. Can you spot an internet scam dressed up as a great deal? Visit OnGuardOnline.gov for tips on how to spot online frauds.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available for more than 1700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.