Intuit buys Mint for $170 million

Developers of boxed financial software like Quicken and TurboTax buy Web startup

Web startup Mint, was acquired by Intuit for $170 million.

Why would a company like Intuit, which is well known for for its financial software Quicken and TurboTax, be interested in purchasing the web site Mint?  Intuit's CEO Brad Smith said in a statement, "With this transaction, Intuit will gain another fast-growing consumer brand and a highly successful software as a service offering that helps people save and make money."

But the two companies have directly competing services.  Intuit's Quicken offers very similar services to Mint.  Both companies help users organize their finances and track their spending habits online.  Although Intuit has acquired Mint, both companies said they would continue to operate independently while adding some of Mint's features to Intuit's own services, according to the NYTimes.

CEO and founder of Mint, Aaron Patzer said, "Joining Intuit enables us to bring our vision of helping consumers understand and do more with their money to millions of Intuit customers."

Mint has about 1.4 million registered users accounting for $200 billion in transactions, a wealth of financial information thus the large valuation for a company which has yet to ssee profit.  The company received $31.8 million in VC funding since its inception back in 2006.  

The deal is set to close during the fourth quarter of this year and subject to regulatory review.