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Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

techcrunch.com

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Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#11

Post by davidmathers »

plinkplonk wrote: post #5
vaksel wrote: post #2

personally I'm disappointed with this, I just don't see Intuit as the right company to run Mint

" just don't see Intuit as the right company to run Mint" It isn't. But (due disclosure: I worked at Intuit once and while I have no special knowledge about this deal, I know how Intuit works) Intuit had no choice really. Mint was high on management's radar and they were always scared of it. Intuit doesn't "get" the web, the whole company is structured around its success on the desktop and there are too many layers o…

The part I don't get is why Mint would take the quick exit rather than fight the fight. It looked to me like they were well positioned for a long term victory.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#12

Post by plinkplonk »

davidmathers wrote: post #11
plinkplonk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" just don't see Intuit as the right company to run Mint" It isn't. But (due disclosure: I worked at Intuit once and while I have no special knowledge about this deal, I know how Intuit works) Intuit had no choice really. Mint was high on management's radar and they were always scared of it. Intuit doesn't "get" the web, the whole company is structured around its success on the desktop and there are too many layers o…

The part I don't get is why Mint would take the quick exit rather than fight the fight. It looked to me like they were well positioned for a long term victory.

"It looked to me like they were well positioned for a long term victory."

True. But I would imagine 170 million is a lot of money to the founders. A bird in the hand and all that...

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#14

Post by cvg »

davidmathers wrote: post #11
plinkplonk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" just don't see Intuit as the right company to run Mint" It isn't. But (due disclosure: I worked at Intuit once and while I have no special knowledge about this deal, I know how Intuit works) Intuit had no choice really. Mint was high on management's radar and they were always scared of it. Intuit doesn't "get" the web, the whole company is structured around its success on the desktop and there are too many layers o…

The part I don't get is why Mint would take the quick exit rather than fight the fight. It looked to me like they were well positioned for a long term victory.

$170 million is why. There was a good amount invested over a few rounds, but what's left is probably enough FU money for Aaron and team.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#16

Post by jlm382 »

The question isn't so much why Intuit would buy Mint, but why would Mint allow themselves to be acquired so soon?

If Mint was doing so well, they'd continue on their path to completely outplace Quicken. Something about this just doesn't add up.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#18

Post by timr »

davidmathers wrote: post #9

This is a terrific exit for Mint Seriously? Maybe I don't get it but if Yahoo had bought Google or Facebook had bought Twitter would those have been terrific exits? Why are they selling out so quickly? I don't trust Intuit and will probably stop using Mint (I was just getting started in the past few months).

The days of billion-dollar exits for zero-revenue companies are gone, and will probably continue to be gone for a long while to come.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#19

Post by tonystubblebine »

falsestprophet wrote: post #7

This could be an excellent opportunity to start a competing outfit. I bet Inuit will have choked on Mint by the time a new competitor is launched.

There is a good competitor, Wesabe. Disclosure: I helped get that product launched and still have some stock.

They have many of the same features, are catching up in the polish area, and have a strong data privacy angle.

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