With all the talk of platforms of late, it occurs to me that too little is being said about Intuit and its position as arguably THE key enabler for small businesses on the Web. While Intuit's position as the dominant provider of accounting and tax preparation software and services is well understood, the company's ability to profitably leverage its position into other avenues of growth may not be.
There are myriad components toward building a successful platform and/or ecosystem; but it occurs to me that two of the most important are: SCALE and TRUST .
Intuit certainly has both in spades:
- $2.7B revenues
- 15mm TurboTax users
- 7mm QuickBooks users
- 8mm Online Banking customers
Earlier this year Intuit acquired Digital Insight, which was a transformative move (although one that has yet to be proven out); and now they follow the DGIN purchase with today's acquisition of Homestead. Creating synergies in technology mergers is no small feat, but the POTENTIAL of Intuit's acquisitions is impossible to ignore. Small business users need simple, easy-to-implement, reliable and trustworthy solutions. Intuit, Digital Insight and Homestead each, in their own ways, fit that bill.
Note: This is not a
recommendation to buy or sell INTU or any other
security, but is
merely a
personal analysis to foster discussion for informational purposes only.
At the time of this writing, I and/or funds I maintain discretionary
control over, did not maintain a direct position (long or short) in any
of the companies mentioned but we reserve the right to do so in the future. We also may, at
times, carry derivative options on underlying
positions as a hedge.
intuit
saas
platform
smb
banking
homestead
tax
woodrow
enterprise irregulars
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