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The question isn't so much why Intuit would buy Mint, but why would Mint allow themselves to be acquired so soon? If Mint was doing so well, they'd continue on

• jjs 17y ago
  The decreasing marginal utility of money meant that it was a good exit for the founders, regardless of whether it would have been optimal for the company in the long run.
• wpietri 17y ago
  It's important to remember that companies are run for the benefit of investors. These folks just took a C round, so I'd guess the majority of the shares are held by venture capitalists. VCs don't fund startups to achieve competitive victory per se. Their job is to make money for the people who invested in their funds, and they do that by selling the shares they bought for more than they paid for them. The main routes for that are acquisition and IPO. Right now, the IPO market is not looking healthy, and won't be for a while. Given that Mint's revenue comes from getting consumers to sign up for credit cards and other financial offers, their market will be anemic for a while. So they're an especially poor IPO candidate for the next few years. That leaves getting bought. If that's what your after, and Intuit comes along and offers you a great price, why wouldn't you take it? Intuit needs Mint a lot right now, but maybe later Mint's bargaining position will be worse.