"With the acquisition of Lacerte, Intuit improves its position in the strategic professional tax preparation software business and gains a brand widely respected by tax professionals," said Bill Harris, executive vice president of Intuit. "The acquisition also adds an operating unit that has traditionally been highly profitable, which we expect to be accretive to our earnings on a pro forma basis."

Intuit's acquisition of Lacerte received regulatory approval by the Department of Justice June 15. Lacerte, which will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Intuit, will be managed by President Randy Zeller. Zeller, who has been with Lacerte for ten years, served as chief operating officer of the company prior to the acquisition. Founder and former president, Larry Lacerte, and former vice president, Philip Lacerte have retired from day to day management of the company but continue to serve on its board of directors. The rest of the company's management team remains intact.

Lacerte is a provider of professional tax preparation software, electronic filing services, educational services, educational seminars and self study courses used by accountants and tax preparers. Intuit will continue to offer its ProSeries software, also used by professional tax preparers. The Lacerte and ProSeries products feature different user interfaces and functionality.

"By offering professional tax preparers a choice of two different approaches to preparing their clients' tax returns, we are better able to serve our customers and better able to compete against the large international tax preparation software companies," said Larry Wolfe, senior vice president of Intuit's tax products division.