Quicken maker Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) Wednesday says it is selling its Quicken Bill Manager to Princeton, N.J.-based Princeton eCom for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.
The Mountain View-based financial software and Web-based services company says the sale of its online bill payment and presentment business is part of a company-wide program to reshape its business portfolio.
“This agreement will provide Intuit with a better business model,” says Intuit president and CEO Steve Bennett.
Under the terms of the agreement, Princeton eCom will take over the assets of Intuit’s Quicken Bill Manager by buying certain Intuit technologies and all of the outstanding shares of Intuit subsidiary Venture Finance Software.
“We think this arrangement provides Princeton eCom with the tools it needs to focus on growing its business,” says Bennett. “At the same time, it frees up Intuit’s investment in the business while also enabling us to benefit from potential revenue upside.”
The sale is expected to impact approximately 25 Intuit employees, all of whom will be offered positions at Princeton eCom. Princeton eCom plans to open an office for those employees in the Silicon Valley.
For now, Intuit says it will continue to offer a bill management service to customers on both the desktop and Web. Customers will remain Intuit customers, but later in the year, Princeton eCom will take over the Quicken Bill Manager operation.
In exchange, Intuit will either get an equity stake in Princeton eCom equivalent to approximately 20 percent of the company’s outstanding shares after the transaction closes, or cash. That decision could come as early as February 2002 at a Princeton eCom meeting.
Intuit and Princeton eCom say they’ve also entered into other long-term multi-year business agreement that gives Princeton eCom the right to use the “Powered by Quicken Bill Manager” mark on third party sites but Intuit will retain some of the revenues from sales and royalties.