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If you were under a rock for the entirety of the day, you might not have any clue that Mint.com was bought by the likes of Intuit.  Intuit is the owner of a little piece of shitty software called “Quicken.”  Quicken happens to be one of the numbest names for software ever.  For a long time this software was really the dominator in the field of personal money management software.  Intuit focused heavily on the desktop software while many other folks, Mint included, crept their service to the cloud.  The cloud software was updated on a regular basis, was accessible from any computer or mobile phone, and could easily, and silently be updated…oh yeah and was free.  Intuit witnessed that people did not want to pay for software every year, they wanted something simple, sexy, and streamlined that could allow people to actually effectively manage their money.

Time stamp yourself 2 years into the future and through countless attempts by Intuit to one up Mint’s success and you have today.  Intuit has purchased Mint.com for a healthy sum of 170 million.  For a bunch of econ nerds, 170 million is an amazing exit strategy, no matter any way you spin it.  I could leave it here (and you would be bored) but as you remember, if you actually read this post, Intuit has been playing catch up for years and really has nothing worthwhile to show for it.  Moreover, people went to Mint.com because they were not a huge business, had a sensible UI, and had constant and consistent updates.  So what happens to us Mint lovers now?  Are we left out in the wind to rot and spend what little money have all “willy-nilly?”

Apparently Intuit is taking over the service but Mint will remain the same.  “Same” being a relative term after Intuit sits their banding engine down on it for a while.  What we hope is that Mint remains the same and Intuit breathes some old fashion fun into it as Mint continues to sojourn into its new life.  Just remember Intuit, the more you screw it up the quicker peeps will run away from it and the quicker your 170 mill investment will look like a large whole in your pocket. -Pic is from Mint in March 2008, perhaps 5 months after their TC50 launch

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