Quicken Update New Buyer

[Senator]

FWIW, I just received this email from Quicken.

To our valued Quicken customers,

I’m Eric Dunn, the head of the Quicken business and an avid daily user of Quicken. Today, I am pleased to share some news about the business, our commitment to improving our products, and my enthusiasm about the future of Quicken.

Back in August, Intuit announced plans to find a new home for Quicken. We have now identified a buyer who shares my passion for the Quicken product and for devoted customers like you. H.I.G. Capital is a leading private equity firm with a track record for investing in and building strong businesses. They decided to invest in the Quicken business because of their deep appreciation of the Quicken product, our loyal customers, and Quicken’s commitment to helping consumers manage their finances. They are confident, as am I, that Quicken will thrive with increased investment, leading to product improvements and advances that will allow Quicken to continue to serve you well for decades to come. Looking ahead, I am excited that I will be working with them as the future owners of the Quicken business – and, as a significant personal investor in the transaction, as a part-owner myself.

My team and I know you count on Quicken to help you stay on top of your finances, and we are committed to continuing to improve your experience with Quicken. We’ve already started the journey with the new Quicken 2016 products that launched in November with new features to help consumers stay on top of their bills. In the last six months, we’ve also increased our investment in U.S.-based phone support. This is just the start of what’s to come – I invite you to watch this short video to learn more about why I’m excited about our future together:

Thank you for being a loyal Quicken customer. I look forward to having you join us on this next chapter of Quicken!

 

[wanaberetiree]

I hope it will be for better and Quicken will still be alive in 2 years

 

[ejman]

It sounds wonderful. I'm sure the new and improved Quicken will be just terrific and fulfil every customer wish and H.I.G Capital will unlock the undiscovered value of this franchise and raise it to new heights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.I.G._Capital

 

[audreyh1]

I just hope my old version keeps working!

 

[Steevo]

I hope the new owner realizes that they have ignored all of the Mac users for the last ten or fifteen years.

 

[bUU]

This is being discussed in another forum. There, someone related this buyer's history of buying things like Quicken (in that case, the company was Cardell Cabinets), milking them for as much money as they can, and then declaring bankruptcy (presumably to get out from under liabilities). It was just one example, and may or may not be indicative of their plans for Quicken.

 

[ChicagoGal]

I think I'm glad I'm in the midst of moving over to MoneyDance.

 

[pb4uski]

This is being discussed in another forum. There, someone related this buyer's history of buying things like Quicken (in that case, the company was Cardell Cabinets), milking them for as much money as they can, and then declaring bankruptcy (presumably to get out from under liabilities). It was just one example, and may or may not be indicative of their plans for Quicken.

Usually these PE guys make a lot more if they can rehabilitate the business and then either sell it or do an IPO and that is usually the plan.... it is rarer that the best value for them is to dissolve the business. Also, the fact that the CEO was with the predecessor and has some skin in the game makes me optimistic. Time will tell.

 

[steelyman]

I hope this thread doesn't die off and reliable information keeps coming.

I am particularly interested in this because I will be off on a long-overdue visit to the Apple Store in a few weeks to investigate a desktop replacement for a Windows PC that I've kept alive almost exclusively due to Quicken. I want a "genius" to offer opinions on options for running Quicken on a new iMac (my likely replacement for the PC).

 

[pb4uski]

Saw this in today's news. Doesn't affect me as a Windows user but will be of interest to Mac addicts.

Quicken has announced that it plans to double the engineering team working on its Mac software. Intuit sold the personal finance application to H.I.G. Capital last week and the investment group already has plans to improve the program for users.

 

[Gone4Good]

I don't have high hopes for improvement but nor do I really think the existing product can get much worse. As it is I still have to use spreadsheets to track my investments and even had to completely re-calculate my income by hand because quicken routinely double counts, or completely ignores, imported dividend transactions. And that's when it downloads transactions at all.

So maybe the best thing for this P.O.S. is for H.I.G to put it out of its misery.

 

[Gone4Good]

Usually these PE guys make a lot more if they can rehabilitate the business and then either sell it or do an IPO and that is usually the plan.... it is rarer that the best value for them is to dissolve the business. Also, the fact that the CEO was with the predecessor and has some skin in the game makes me optimistic. Time will tell.

In the case of a business with a dominant and entrenched product with few viable competitors the way P.E. usually makes money is to leverage the hell out of the company's stable cash flow, use the borrowed money to pay themselves large dividends, cut costs as much as possible and slowly bleed the thing dry.

I could be wrong. Maybe Quicken is a turnaround candidate. But when you already pretty much own the entire market, it's not clear to me where the "turn around" upside comes from. Mostly it's a story you tell lenders and customers to keep everyone on board for as long as possible. It's not necessarily the key to a successful P.E. investment. But maybe a cherry on top if they can pull it off.

 

[Gone4Good]

Wow, I stand corrected. According to the WSJ . . .

In its most recent fiscal year, Intuit brought in $51 million in revenue from Quicken and swung to a loss in the segment.

It seems like Intuit is as bad at business as they are at programming personal finance software. So maybe there is a turnaround story here after all.

 

[audreyh1]

My biggest concern is that they break what I have working for me now on a Mac - Quicken 2007. It's worked for a very long time. They do the occasional bug fix - like when the security codes changes last year preventing transaction downloads.

 

[bUU]

Of course they cannot "break" anything on your computer. As such, I'm not sure what you mean but perhaps you mean that you are worried that some ongoing service you're getting from them (presumably long past the time they promised to provide that service) will be going way?

 

[braumeister]

Quicken has announced that it plans to double the engineering team working on its Mac software.

Wow! TWO part-time interns.