Last week, Intuit announced it would acquire bill payment provider Check, formerly known as Pageonce, for $360 million. In the wake of the announcement, some industry watchers questioned why a company with Intuit‘s prodigious resources would need to pay a premium for capabilities it seems capable of developing in-house. But an Intuit spokesperson said Check will allow Intuit customers to take action and, therefore, look ahead, not back. Customers Check is not a cash cow. As Re/code pointed out, Check’s revenue was just $16 million last year and forecast to be $20 million this year, despite Check counting more than 10 million customers. Intuit counted about 5 million business users of QuickBooks in 2012, though the number is likely higher today. (Intuit has a total customer base of 45 million users, a company representative said today.) Mint.com, Intuit’s personal financial management tool that competes with Check’s product but lacks bill payment capabilities, has 14 million users. Check’s 10 million would, therefore, add considerably to Intuit’s number of non-business users and deepen its consumer penetration. With the line blurring between small businesses and customers — anyone with a dongle can be a merchant — gaining consumers as customers, even if little revenue results, […]
↧