Intuit
Intuit Inc. is an American business that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. more than 95% of its revenues and earnings come from its activities within the United States. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application TurboTax, personal finance app Mint, the small business accounting program QuickBooks, the credit monitoring service Credit Karma, and email marketing platform Mailchimp. Intuit offers a free online service called TurboTax Free File as well as a similarly named service called TurboTax Free Edition which is not free for most users . TurboTax Free File was developed as part of an agreement whereby members of the Free File Alliance would offer tax preparation for individuals below an income threshold for free in exchange for the IRS not providing taxpayers with free pre-filled forms. In 2019, investigations by ProPublica found that Intuit deliberately steered taxpayers from the free TurboTax Free File to the paid TurboTax Free Edition using tactics including search engine delisting and a deceptive discount targeted to members of the military. Subsequent investigations by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the New York State Department of  Financial Services reached similar conclusions, the latter concluding that Intuit engaged in "unfair and abusive practices". Intuit has lobbied extensively against the IRS providing taxpayers with free pre-filled forms, as is the norm in developed countries. As of 2021, Intuit is the subject of multiple lawsuits and is under investigation by the FTC and several state attorneys general. History. The company was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Palo Alto, California. Intuit was conceived by Scott Cook, whose prior work at Procter & Gamble helped him realize that personal computers would lend themselves towards replacements for  paper-and-pencil based personal accounting. On his quest to find a programmer he ended up running into Tom Proulx at Stanford. The two started Intuit, which initially operated out of a modest room on University Avenue in Palo Alto. The first version of Quicken was coded in Microsoft's BASIC programming language for the IBM PC and UCSD Pascal for the Apple II by Tom Proulx and had to contend with a dozen serious competitors. In 1991, Microsoft decided to produce a competitor to Quicken called Microsoft Money. To win retailers' loyalty, Intuit included a US$15 rebate coupon , redeemable on software customers purchased in their stores. This was the first time a software company offered a rebate. Roughly around the same time the company engaged John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins and diversified its product lineup. In 1993 Intuit went public and used the proceeds to make a key acquisition: the tax-preparation software company Chipsoft based in San Diego. The time after the IPO was marked by rapid growth and culminated with a buyout offer from Microsoft in 1994; at this time Intuit's market capitalization reached US$2 billion. When the buyout fell through because of the  United States Department of Justice's disapproval, the company came under intense pressure in the late 1990s when Microsoft started to compete vigorously with its core Quicken business. In response, Intuit launched new web-based products and put more emphasis on QuickBooks and on TurboTax. The company made a number of investments around this time. Among others, it purchased a large stake in Excite and acquired Lacerte Software, a Dallas-based developer of tax preparation software used by tax professionals. It also divested itself of its online bill payment service unit and extended and strengthened its partnership with CheckFree. In  June 2013, Intuit announced it would sell its financial services unit to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $1.03 billion. In June 2015, the firm laid off approximately 5% of its workforce as part of a company reorganization. As of May 2018, Intuit had more than US$5 billion in annual revenue and a market capitalization of about US$50 billion. In August 2018, the company announced that Sasan Goodarzi would become Intuit's leader and CEO at the beginning of 2019. Smith will remain chairman of Intuit's board of directors. In August 2020, Intuit QuickBooks Canada was  expected to reveal intentions to partner with Digital Main Street, as the company aims to help digitally turn Canadian small businesses. Current products. CEO Sasan Goodarzi oversees all products in all countries. International operations. Canada. Intuit Canada ULC, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Intuit, is a developer of financial management and tax preparation software for personal finance and small business accounting. Services are delivered on a variety of platforms including application software, software connected to services, software as a service, platform as a service and mobile applications. Intuit Canada has employees located all across Canada, with offices in Edmonton , Alberta, and Mississauga, Ontario. Intuit Canada traces its origins to the 1993 acquisition by Intuit of a Canadian tax preparation software developer. In 1992, Edmontonians and University of Alberta graduates Bruce Johnson and Chad Frederick had built a tax preparation product called WINTAX – Canada's first Microsoft Windows-based personal tax preparation software. In 1993, they agreed to be acquired by Chipsoft, manufacturer of the U.S. personal income tax software TurboTax. Shortly after the WINTAX acquisition, Chipsoft agreed to merge with Intuit, the developer of the Quicken financial software. Intuit Canada continued to update and support the WINTAX software, which  was renamed QuickTax in 1995 and then renamed TurboTax in 2010. Intuit Canada quickly became the hub for international development at Intuit, producing localized versions of Quicken and QuickBooks for Canada (in French and English) and the United Kingdom. The U.K. version of Quicken was discontinued in 2005. Discontinued products of Intuit Canada. In 2008, Intuit Canada discontinued the TaxWiz software and added QuickTax Basic to their lineup. Changes made by the Canada Revenue Agency forced Intuit and other tax preparing software companies to limit the number of returns available from their software to 20. This caused Intuit Canada to  stop offering QuickTax Pro50 and Pro100 products, and they now offer QuickTax 20 as an alternative. Intuit Canada has since announced that for the 2010 tax year, they will discontinue use of the name QuickTax and replace it with the name TurboTax – thus bringing the product in line with Intuit's American tax-filing software. Online communities. Intuit has several online communities, some of which offer integration or cross-sells into its other products. These include QuickBooks online community for QuickBooks users and small business owners, Quicken Online Community for Quicken users and those who need help with the personal  finances, and the Accountant Online Community and Jump Up. Each consists of blogs, an expert locator map and event calendar, forums and discussion groups, podcasts, videocasts and webinars, and other user-created content. JumpUp (formerly JackRabbit Beta) is a free social networking and resources site for small business owners and/or start-ups. Free tools and services include an interactive business planner, online training for developing a successful business plan, starting costs calculator, cash flow calculator, break-even calculator, templates for business planning and sample business plans. TaxAlmanac is a free online tax research resource. The site includes information including the  Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, Tax Court Cases, and a variety of articles. Modeled after English Wikipedia, TaxAlmanac was launched in May 2005. The June 6, 2005 edition of Time magazine featured an article entitled "It's a Wiki, Wiki World" about English Wikipedia in which TaxAlmanac was highlighted as "A Community of Customers". The November 21, 2005 edition of "Business Week" featured an article titled "50 Smart Ways to Use the Web" in which TaxAlmanac was selected as one of the 50. The product made the short list as one of the 7 in the collaboration category. Intuit shut  down TaxAlmanac effective June 1, 2014. Many of the users have migrated to a new site called TaxProTalk.com. Zipingo was a free website where users could rate services such as contractors, restaurants, and other businesses. Ratings and comments were either entered from the website or through Quicken and QuickBooks. The site was closed by Intuit on August 23, 2007. Finances. For the fiscal year 2021, Intuit reported earnings of US$2.062 billion, with an annual revenue of US$9.633 billion, an increase of 25.4% over the previous fiscal cycle. Intuit's shares traded at over $498.18 per share and  total international net revenue was less than 5% of total net revenue. Acquisitions and carve-outs. 1990s. In 1993, Intuit acquired Chipsoft, a tax preparation software company based in San Diego. In 1994, the firm acquired the tax preparation software division of Best Programs of Reston, VA. In the same year, Intuit acquired Parsons Technology from Bob Parsons for $64 million. In 1996, it acquired GALT Technologies, Inc of Pittsburgh, PA. In 1998, it acquired Lacerte Software Corp., which now operates as an Intuit subsidiary. The Lacerte subsidiary focuses on tax software used by professional accountants who prepare taxes  for a living. It is generally used by larger firms with more complex workflows and clients. On March 2, 1999, Intuit acquired Computing Resources Inc. of Reno, Nevada for approximately $200 million. This acquisition allowed Intuit to offer a payroll processing platform through its QuickBooks software program. In December 1999, Intuit purchased Rock Financial for a sum of $532M. The company was renamed Quicken Loans. In June 2002, Rock Financial founder Dan Gilbert led a small group of private investors in purchasing the Quicken Loans subsidiary back from Intuit. 2000s. In 2001, Intuit invested in UK market, hiring  a local management team led by Stephen Lee, managing director, and Neil Atkins, marketing director, with an aim to become Europe's leading B2B & B2C packaged accounts solution. In 2002, the firm acquired Management Reports International, a Cleveland-based real estate management software firm. The firm was renamed Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES) and offers real estate management products for Windows and the web. In 2002, it acquired Eclipse ERP for $88 million, a real-time transaction processing accounting software used for order fulfillment, inventory control, accounting, purchasing, and sales In 2003, it acquired 'Innovative Merchant Solutions' (IMS).a firm  that provided merchant services to all types of businesses nationwide. The acquisition gave Intuit the ability to process credit cards through its core product, QuickBooks, without the need for hardware leasing. They can also provide traditional terminal-based credit card processing and downloading transactions directly into the QuickBooks software. In November 2005, Intuit acquired MyCorporation.com, an online business document filing service, for $20 million from original founders Philip and Nellie Akalp. In September 2006, it acquired StepUp Commerce, an online localized product listing syndicator, for $60 million in cash. In December 2006, it acquired Digital Insight, a provider  of online banking services. On August 17, 2007, Intuit sold Eclipse ERP to Activant, for $100.5 million in cash . In December 2007, it acquired Electronic Clearing House to add check processing power.In December 2007, it acquired Homestead Technologies which offers web site creation and e-commerce tools targeted at the small business market, for $170 million. In April 2009, it acquired Boorah, a restaurant review site. On June 2, 2009, it announced the signing of a definitive agreement to purchase PayCycle Inc., an online payroll services, in an all-cash transaction for approximately $170 million. On  September 14, 2009, Intuit Inc. agreed to acquire Mint.com, a free online personal finance service, for $170 million. 2010s. On January 15, 2010, Intuit Inc. spun off Intuit Real Estate Solutions (which Intuit acquired in 2002) as a stand-alone company. The new company took on its previous moniker, and is now known as MRI Software. On May 21, 2010, Intuit acquired MedFusion, a Cary, NC leader of Patient to Provider communications for approximately $91 million. On August 10, 2010, it. acquired the personal finance management app Cha-Ching. On June 28, 2011, it acquired the Web banking  technology assets of Mobile Money Ventures, a mobile finance provider, for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition is expected to position Intuit as the largest online and mobile technology provider to financial institutions. On May 18, 2012, it. acquired Demandforce, an automated small business marketing, and customer communications SaaS provider for approximately $423.5 million. On August 15, 2012, it announced an agreement to sell their 'Grow Your Business' business unit to Endurance International. The sale included the Intuit Websites and Weblistings products which had been formed from the Homestead Technologies and StepUp Commerce acquisitions. On July 1, 2013, it announced  an agreement to sell their Intuit Financial Services (IFS) business unit (formerly known as Digital Insight) to Thoma Bravo for more than $1.03 billion. On August 19, 2013, it announced that they had sold their Intuit Health business unit (formerly known as MedFusion) back to MedFusion's founder, Steve Malik. In August 2013, Intuit Inc. acquired tax planning software Good April for an undisclosed amount. On October 23, 2013, it acquired Level Up Analytics, a data consulting firm. On October 30, 2013,it acquired Full Slate, a developer of appointment scheduling software for small businesses. In May 2014, Intuit Inc.  bought Invitco to help bookkeepers put bill processing in the cloud. In May 2014, it acquired Check for approximately $360 million to offer bill pay across small business and personal finance products. In December 2014, it. acquired Acrede, UK-based provider of global, cross-border and cloud-based payroll services. In March 2015, Intuit Inc. acquired Playbook HR. In January 2016, Intuit Inc. announced an agreement to sell Demandforce to Internet Brands. On March 3, 2016, Intuit announced plans to sell Quicken to H.I.G. Capital. On March 8, 2016, it announced plans to sell Quickbase to private equity firm  Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. On May 1, 2017, Intuit announced it was selling TruPay. Intuit acquired Bankstream in 2017. On December 5, 2017, Intuit announced its acquisition of TSheets for $340 million. 2020s. On February 24, 2020, Intuit CEO and leader Sasan Goodarzi announced that it planned to acquire Credit Karma for $7.1 billion. On August 3, 2020, Intuit announced its acquisition of TradeGecko for $100 million. On September 13, 2021, Intuit announced its acquisition of Mailchimp for $12 billion. Lobbying. In 2007, Intuit lobbied to make sure taxpayers cannot electronically file their tax returns  directly to the IRS by negotiating a deal preventing the IRS from setting up its own web portal for e-filing. In 2009, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that Intuit spent nearly $2 million in political contributions to eliminate free online state tax filing for low-income residents in California. According to the "New York Times", from 2009 to 2014, Intuit spent nearly $13 million lobbying, as reported by OpenSecrets, as much as Apple. Intuit spent $1 million on the race for the California state comptroller to support Tony Strickland, a Republican who opposed ReadyReturn, against John  Chiang, a Democrat who supported ReadyRun (and won). Joseph Bankman, professor of tax law, Stanford Law School, and advocate of simplified filing, believes that the campaign warned politicians that if they supported free filing, Intuit would help their opponents. On March 26, 2013, ProPublica reported that the company lobbied against return-free filing as recently as 2011. One year later, ProPublica reported that the company appeared to be linked to a number of op-eds and letters to Congress in a campaign advocating against direct tax filing backed by the Computer & Communications Industry Association, an advocacy organization of which Intuit  is a member. Lawsuits. An antitrust lawsuit and a class-action suit relating to cold calling employees of other companies were settled out of court along with Apple and Google. In March 2015, "The Washington Post" and computer reporter Brian Krebs reported that two former employees alleged that Intuit knowingly allowed fraudulent returns to be processed on a massive scale as part of a revenue-boosting scheme. Both employees, former security team members for the company, stated that the company had ignored repeated warnings and suggestions on how to prevent fraud. One of the employees was reported to have filed  a whistleblower complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.