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Kirkland Advises Thoma Bravo on $1 Billion Intuit Buy

01 July 2013

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has struck a deal to acquire Intuit Financial Services, an Intuit Inc. unit that provides online and mobile banking software to financial institutions, for $1.025 billion in cash.

Intuit—whose personal finance software products include Quickbooks and Turbotax—said in a statement that it decided to sell Westlake Village, California–based Intuit Financial Services in order to focus more closely on its core business. The company also said it plans to use proceeds from the sale to buy back shares.

"Thoma Bravo is gaining a richly talented team that has created an enviable integrated digital banking platform and innovative mobile solution, recognized as the best in the market," Intuit CEO Brad Smith said in a statement announcing the deal. "Intuit will sharpen its focus on directly serving consumers and small businesses, and continuing to build our durable competitive advantage in those segments."

Intuit is holding onto two pieces of the division changing hands, Mint.com and Open Financial Exchange connectivity services. Excluding the revenue generated by those two components, Intuit Financial Services——which employs a total of 730 people spread across several offices in the U.S. and India—generated $305 million in revenue in fiscal 2012 and is expected to take in $325 million in fiscal 2013.

The deal, which must still obtain regulatory approval, is expected to close in the next few months, the parties said in their joint press release.

Kirkland & Ellis is advising Thoma Bravo on the deal with a team led by Chicago-based corporate partners Gerald Nowak and Theodore Peto. The firm also represented the private equity firm in connection with its $395 million going-private acquisition of Keynote Systems, a provider of Internet and mobile cloud testing and monitoring, which was announced last week.

For its part, Intuit has turned to a Latham & Watkins team led by Silicon Valley corporate partner Luke Bergstrom. Other Latham partners working on the matter include San Francisco–based Kirt Switzer (tax), Joshua Holian (antitrust), and Karen Silverman (antitrust); Silicon Valley–based J.D. Marple (technology transactions) and James Metz (employee benefits and compensation); and Los Angeles–based Glen Collyer (finance).

The Latham associates working on the deal are Una Au, Mark Bekheit, Heather Bromfield, Charlotte Chang, Julie Crisp, Kathleen Cui, Daniel Cunha, and Henry Hattemer.

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