Intuit, the makers of Quicken, announced it is purchasing Mint.com, a rival personal finance Web site, for $170 million.

According to the announcement on The Quicken Blog, by joining the two companies will be able to better achieve their common goal to "help consumers do more with their money with innovative, easy-to-use online services."

For now there will be no change in the way that users of Mint.com or Quicken Online manage their finances and access their account information. After the acquisition is complete Mint.com will continue to operate separately as Mint.com and become the "primary online personal finance management service that is offered directly to consumers by Intuit."


Quicken Online, which is the Intuit competitor to Mint, will still be available and will "connect Quicken customers across desktop, online and mobile to deliver easy, anytime-anywhere access."

One of the biggest concerns I had when I heard about this news was that the Quicken Online software would become a paid service bundled with the Quicken Desktop software. But Scott Gulbransen, manager of public relations for Intuit's consumer division, put those fears to rest. In an e-mail to WalletPop he assured us that keeping track of your finances with either of these services will be free.

This DOES NOT in anyway mean that Quicken Online will move to a paid subscription. There are no plans to change product pricing on EITHER product. - Scott Gulbransen - Intuit

As a user of Quicken Online this is welcome news and there are sure to be other benefits to both services as the transition completes. While no more specifics are available about what changes users can expect to see, I'm hopeful that Mint.com will have access to more financial institutions such as small banks and credit unions.

The final piece of good news for everyone, but especially for Mint.com diehards, is that Aaron Patzer, the founder and CEO of Mint.com, will be joining Intuit as the GM of the Personal Finance group where he will be in charge of "online, desktop and mobile consumer personal finance offerings."

As a user it's good to hear that the two services will remain separate and that Intuit has a plan in mind for both Quicken Online and Mint.com. Because Mint.com and Quicken Online will continue to be distinct services users won't have to worry about being forcefully migrated to an existing platform which may or may not have their favorite feature, which is great news.

What's even better is that users will benefit from the combined forces of the Intuit and Mint, which should lead to exciting new features and services to, "help consumers do more with their money," as Intuits puts it.