Is everything goin to Quicken?

[terces]

First Microsoft Money decides to quit... Now Mint.com being bought by Quicken.

Just got this email.

"Ready for the next Evolution
Thank you for being a part of what’s becoming a revolution in active personal financial management. I’m excited to say that Mint.com and Intuit are coming together to take personal finance to the next level. Mint.com has entered into an agreement to be purchased by Intuit. Once the acquisition closes, Mint.com will have the opportunity to spread that revolution to more people, more quickly, together with one of the world’s strongest software brands. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2009.

What’s not going to change
Mint.com will stay the way you like it: free, easy-to-use and constantly improving.

What will change
As outlined in today’s press release and my blog post, after the acquisition closes, the Mint.com team will contribute to improving the financial lives of tens of millions of consumers and small businesses. I’ll personally be taking on the role of GM of Intuit’s Personal Finance group responsible for online, desktop and mobile consumer personal finance offerings. Joining Intuit enables us to bring our vision of helping consumers understand and do more with their money to millions of Intuit customers. This is a compelling combination of our innovative product, technology, and industry leading user interface design with one of the most trusted brands in software.

I look forward to executing on that vision --- for you.

Thanks for your support,

Aaron Patzer
Founder and CEO"

[project15]

Yeah I got that too. They say that the service will still be free so I'm not too worried about the changes. I think Intuit will add more features to Mint.

[reptile411]

Run while you can. I stopped using Quicken because of there money hungry views and how they require you to upgrade every year or 2 just to suck more money out of you. I still use Money. I don't need online services as I keep close track of everything and compare my records with my banks several times per day. I would say if Intuit is getting mint then it wont stay free for long.

[MonkeyMama]

Quicken - you have to upgrade every 3 years for support. Not exactly unreasonable.

I personally find using Quicken saves me FAR more than I spend on it. What is it, like $10 a year to use it for 3 years???

I do admit that it is a shame that there is not much more competition out there. I give you that. In the sense that it saves me more money than it costs, I am not going to sweat $30 software though. Not to mention hours saved. It's a steal.

[minnie1928]

You don't HAVE to upgrade Quicken. I ran Quicken 2000 for over 7 years, until I stupidly upgraded (I wish I still had 2000, I liked it better). I didn't upgrade because I figured that the software was basically a checkbook with some reports and graphs. It did everything I wanted it to do (and more). How much can they really improve upon Quicken? It's still gonna, at its core, be a checkbook with reports and graphs. Now that I have 2007 I don't plan on upgrading unless the Mac version comes out and gets good reviews. Right now I still have a pc that I basically only use to run Quicken on...the mac version gets horrible reviews.

That being said...I love Quicken and can't imagine doing my finances without it!

[supersaversam]

I think Mint will continue to be free since they can make so much money referring people to financial products. The only issue is when they start to refer their users to somewhat sketchy financial products.

[buildmybudget]

I can't remember where I read it, but I read that Mint has never made money. I'm wondering how they valued Mint and whether the model can truly be successful long term...

[DayByDay]

I'm still using Quicken 99.

[Alex_Adviser]

The rumored acquisition of personal finance startup Mint by financial software maker Intuit was confirmed by the companies on 15th Sep 09. The company was bought in an all-cash transaction amounting to $170 million. The site will continue to operate as usual, but it will be integrated with Intuit's family of products and Mint's founder and CEO will be put in charge of Intuit's personal finance group.

The transaction is expected to finalize in the fourth quarter and Intuit expects it will affect its non-GAAP diluted earnings by two cents per share and GAAP earnings by three cents per share. Mint launched in 2007 and quickly grew to more than 1.4 million users. The startup was funded in three venture capital rounds amounting to $32 million, making for a nice exit for the investors.