Major Changes at Intuit

In addition to the stock market correction, Intuit recently announced weak quarterly earnings and lowered their projected forecasts for the balance of 2015. Intuit has also announced some dramatic strategic changes and will focus more on their tax software, QuickBooks and merchant service businesses.

Below are several recent announcements which paint a broader picture of their plans:

- In late June, Intuit laid off 399 people (roughly 5%). As part of this reorganization, the head of DemandForce, Patrick Barry, was reassigned. DemandForce is a reputation management software program that Intuit acquired in 2012.

- In late August, Intuit announces decision to sell Quicken, QuickBase and DemandForce. Quicken was launched in 1983 and was a flagship desktop software program for personal finance and budgeting. The revenues for these three businesses represent about 5% of 2016 projected sales and reflect Intuit's evolution out of desktop software.

- In late August, Intuit announces QuickBooks Online sales are up 57% year over year, signaling their strategy towards cloud-based accounting and tax future.

By all means, selling the desktop software programs (Quicken, QuickBase, DemandForce) will be tough and pushing small business clients away from QuickBooks Desktop into QuickBooks Online will be their strategic focus. To accelerate this shift, accountants should expect to see continuous improvements to QuickBooks Online in the months ahead further supporting Intuit's cloud based business strategy.