Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) announced today that it intends to exercise its option to acquire the remaining shares of Venture Finance Software Corp. (VFSC), a privately held joint venture company in which Intuit is a minority investor.
VFSC, based in Mountain View, Calif., has developed technology that has enabled Intuit to move certain functionality of its Quicken desktop software onto the Web. With this technology, Intuit has been able to offer consumers an intuitive service through which they can easily view and pay their bills online, as well as tools that enable them to monitor and manage their personal finances investment portfolios online. VFSC's technology is currently licensed to Intuit to provide these services through Quicken and Quicken.com.
Intuit has elected to acquire all outstanding shares of VFSC in a cash transaction. The purchase price will be based on a formula that was negotiated at the time of Intuit's original investment in May 1998, and is currently expected to be between $120 million and $150 million. The transaction is expected to close during Intuit's fiscal 2001 first quarter.
