Intuit Acquires StepUp Commerce

September 19, 2006  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Retail Technology on September 2006 Intuit Inc. acquired StepUp Commerce Inc., a local shopping services company that helps retailers use the Internet to display their in-store products, last week for $60 million in cash.

StepUp’s technology platform will power Intuit’s new QuickBooks Product Listing Service, which is designed to help local retailers attract buyers to their stores by making their product information and images available online through established Web entities such as Google.

“The purchase of StepUp helps QuickBooks solve one of the biggest challenges for product-based businesses--customer acquisition,” said Brad Smith, senior vice president of Intuit’s Small Business Division. “With StepUp’s services, QuickBooks users will be able to significantly expand their reach by quickly and easily making their products searchable on the Web.”

StepUp will deliver its services under the QuickBooks brand and continue to be based in San Francisco. Kendall Fargo, who founded StepUp in February 2004, now is a general manager at Intuit, reporting to Smith.

“This acquisition allows StepUp to leverage Intuit’s unmatched knowledge and experience with small businesses,” Fargo said. “By joining forces, we can greatly enhance our local product marketing services for our customers and partners.”

Intuit Inc., a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, consumers and accounting professionals, had 2006 revenue of $2.3 billion and employees almost 7,500.