By Douglas MacMillan and Orr Hirschauge
Intuit Inc. confirmed on Tuesday plans to buy bill-payment
service Check Inc. for $360 million.
The Wall Street Journal had reported that the deal was signed on
Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Check is the latest tech startup to be snapped up by Intuit as
the Mountain View, Calif., finance-software maker expands its suite
of tools for individuals and small businesses through acquisitions.
Last year, the company bought document service DocStoc, tax-return
helper GoodApril and small-business scheduling tool Full Slate.
Earlier this month it bought inventory-tracking software
Lettuce.
More than 10 million people use Check's smartphone app to track
and pay bills, according to the company. The service has some of
the same functions as Mint, the person-finance software maker
Intuit bought for $170 million in 2009. Intuit also owns
personal-finance software Quicken and TurboTax.
Check, based in Palo Alto, Calif., makes money from advertisers
that offer promotions for credit cards or insurance within the app.
This year, Check expects revenue of more than $20 million, up from
less than $15 million last year, said one of the people familiar
with the company.
The sale to Intuit culminates a seven-year journey for Check
Chief Executive Guy Goldstein, who co-founded the startup in 2007
as Pageonce, a service for managing bank accounts,
social-networking profiles, shopping carts and other Internet
profiles in one place. Last year, the company changed its name to
Check and narrowed its focus to helping users track their personal
finances and pay bills using their mobile phones.
The Journal first reported about the acquisition talks last
month. The deal is expected to close in the current quarter.
Check has raised about $47 million from venture-capital firms
including Morgenthaler Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Israeli
investor Pitango Venture Capital.
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com and Orr
Hirschauge at Orr.Hirschauge@dowjones.com
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