Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) today announced its acquisition of Cambridge, Mass.-based Apps.com, Inc., the most comprehensive online directory for small businesses to find more than 5,000 Web applications and Applications Service Providers (ASPs) business solutions. The acquisition helps jump-start Intuit's commitment to the application developer community by giving it access to a channel of thousands of developers who may be interested in developing applications that will integrate with Intuit's small business products and services.
"The acquisition of Apps.com is part of our broader strategy to expand the scope of products and services that we offer small business owners," said Steve Bennett, Intuit's president and chief executive officer. "The acquisition gives us ready access to a pool of thousands of developers who have proven their ability to create innovative, Web-based solutions - developers who are good candidates for creating valuable applications to integrate with Intuit's small business products and services. It also gives us the technology we need to speed implementation of our strategy to provide an online small business solutions catalog."
Intuit separately announced that it has launched the Intuit® Developer Network, a multi-faceted new initiative that includes access to application programming interfaces (APIs) for various Intuit small business products and a channel to make those applications available to millions of small businesses. Developers have immediate access to APIs for QuickBooks® Site Solutions, a Web site creation and management tool, and QuickBase®, the company's new Web sharable database service. To enable developer comment and review, Intuit has also released a draft API specification for QuickBooks® financial software. Ultimately, this API will enable developers to integrate data from their solutions with the leading small business accounting solution, with more than 80 percent share of unit sales at retail. The APIs are available at http://developer.intuit.com. (For more information, visit Intuit's pressroom at www.intuit.com/pressroom.)
The Apps.com arsenal gives Intuit a solid base of solutions to make available to its extensive customer base of small business owners. In addition to finding a range of solutions to help run their businesses more efficiently, including tools that will integrate with their Intuit small business products, small business owners will be able to add their ratings of solutions to those posted on the site. In the future, small business owners will be able to put out requests for new applications that they want to see developed.
Apps.com currently offers a wide range of business and productivity tools, from applications to compare vendor bids to tools for calculating the costs of starting a new business. In addition, the site offers a host of niche applications - from applications that help general contractors track and manage lumber inventories to applications that help diving schools to calculate scuba tank air consumption. The site employs advanced technology for cataloging applications and for allowing users to search and rate the solutions.
Apps.com was founded in Oct. 1999. The majority of its employees, including its entire engineering team, have joined Intuit as part of the acquisition. The company has become part of Intuit's small business division focused on working with third-party application developers to provide value-added services to Intuit's small business customer base, and is based in Intuit's Waltham, Mass. office. Intuit's acquisition of the company closed in December 2000. Terms were not disclosed.
