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Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

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Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#21

Post by run4yourlives »

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 long term victory.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#23

Post by jrbedard »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #19
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.

There's also http://www.buxfer.com, a YC company.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#24

Post by dkokelley »

bkudria wrote: post #13
fnid wrote: post #4

This has "buy'em to squash'em" written all over it.

I'm going to have to disagree with that. Wish I could tell you why.

Wish I could tell you why.

Is this because you have some secret knowledge about the deal, or just because you have a gut feeling about it? Your last sentence seemed a little suspicious, which is why I ask.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#25

Post by dkokelley »

timr wrote: post #18
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.

Was mint a zero-revenue company? They have at least three angles to cash in on what they have (aside from selling to Intuit): A) Pitching offers from banks for credit cards and accounts. Banks are willing to pay for these, and they have the information to match the right accounts with the right people. B) Offering tax-filing services like TurboTax. C) Sellign aggregate data from their customers (Not my favorite, but it's not necessarily off of the table).

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#26

Post by davidmathers »

run4yourlives wrote: post #21
davidmathers wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 long term victory.

Crushing your enemy, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of their women is victory (e.g. Larry Ellison). $170 million is retirement.

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#27

Post by patio11 »

timr wrote: post #18
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.

Mint was making a rather significant amount of money as a credit card affiliate. (They also hawked other financial products, but that is almost certainly the most lucrative one. They have a lucrative CPA, a wider reach than home loans, and more repeat business in the demographics inclined to hand all their financial info to a Web 2.0 site.)

Many, many affiliates who look at a million dollars as "Meh, not a lot of money to me anymore" physically drooled when they heard of Mint's model, principally because almost nobody realizes they're an affiliate marketer. As an affiliate, you (potentially) make a lot of money but defensibility of your revenue is a constant driving concern since Google, the merchant, or other affiliates can always disintermediate you. But who can disintermediate the guy you've already given full read access to your financial life to?

Re: Intuit To Acquire Mint For $170 Million

#29

Post by plinkplonk »

davidmathers wrote: post #26
run4yourlives wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

170 Million is long term victory.

Crushing your enemy, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of their women is victory (e.g. Larry Ellison). $170 million is retirement.

"Crushing your enemy, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of their women is victory"

While some management "self help" books use war as a metaphor for business, business isn't really war. The Genghis Khan quote you used might be appropriate for a medieval era barbarian general, not so much a businessman in the 21st century.

"Victory" for a startup is meetings its founders'/investors' goals. No more no less.

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