Intuit Inc.; 湾区高科技公司; 20/100

Intuit Inc.; 湾区高科技公司; 20/100


Intuit Inc.是一家总部位于美国加利福尼亚州山景城(Mountain View)的跨国计算机软件公司,主要制作金融和退税相关的软件。

该公司由斯科特·库克和汤姆·普鲁克斯在1983年成立于加利福尼亚州帕罗奥图,被《福布斯》数年评为“100所最适宜工作的公司”之一。

 

Intuit Inc. is a business and financial software company that develops and sells financial, accounting and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Greater than 95% of its revenues and earnings come from its activities within the United States.

Intuit produces TurboTax, a consumer tax preparation application, the small business accounting program QuickBooks, professional tax solutions ProSeries and Lacerte, and multiple payroll products. In April 2016, Intuit completed the sale of its original flagship product, Quicken, to H.I.G. Capital.

In addition to the United States, the company has offices in seven countries around the world: UK, Australia, France, Singapore, India, Brazil, and Canada.

 

History

The company was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Palo Alto, California.

Intuit was conceived by Scott Cook, whose prior work at Procter & Gamble helped him realize that personal computers would lend themselves towards replacements for paper-and-pencil based personal accounting. On his quest to find a programmer he ended up running into Tom Proulx at Stanford. The two started Intuit, which initially operated out of a modest room on University Avenue in Palo Alto. The first version of Quicken was coded in Microsoft’s BASIC programming language for the IBM PC and UCSD Pascal for the Apple II by Tom Proulx and had to contend with a dozen serious competitors.

In 1991 Microsoft decided to produce a competitor to Quicken called Microsoft Money. To win retailers’ loyalty, Intuit includ ed a US$15 rebate coupon, redeemable on software customers purchased in their stores. This was the first time a software company offered a rebate.

Roughly around the same time the company engaged John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and diversified its product lineup. In 1993 Intuit went public and used the proceeds to make a key acquisition: the tax-preparation software company Chipsoft based in San Diego. The time after the IPO was marked by rapid growth and culminated with a buyout offer from Microsoft in 1994; at this time Intuit’s market capitalization reached US$2 billion.

When the buyout fell through because of the United States Department of Justice’s disapproval, the company came under intense pressure in the late 1990s when Microsoft started to compete vigorously with its core Quicken business.[9] In response, Intuit launched new web-based products and solutions and put more emphasis on QuickBooks and on TurboTax. The company made a number of investments around this time. Among others, it purchased a large stake in Excite and acquired Lacerte Software, a Dallas-based developer of tax preparation software used by tax professionals. It also divested itself of its online bill payment service unit and extended and strengthened its partnership with CheckFree.

Today, Intuit has more than US$4 billion in annual revenue and a market capitalization of more than US$20 billion.[citation needed]

Intuit was ranked in Fortune’s “Top 100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2007.

Intuit was ranked in Fortune’s “America’s most admired software companies” in 2007.

In June 2013, Intuit announced it would sell its financial services unit to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $1.03 billion.

In June 2015, Intuit laid off approximately 5% of its workforce as part of a company reorganization.