Fresh off yet another tax season in which a high percentage of U.S. tax filers rely on its annually updated software, Intuit made some other news April 27 by announcing the acquisition of DemandForce for $423.5 million in cash.
DemandForce, based in San Francisco, produces mobile device, email and social-networking tools that help small and midsize businesses automate their marketing and customer communications. DemandForce also incorporates online user reviews into its package.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit, which makes TurboTax and QuickBooks, said DemandForce will accelerate the company’s strategic expansion into other types of high-value software-as-a-service products for small businesses.
Intuit has expanded beyond desktop software into delivering cloud-based software and services. Naturally, this includes its specialties: tax preparation for households, personal and small-business bookkeeping, and small-business payroll processing.
The company also said Demandforce has achieved strong traction in vertical industries such as health care, dentistry, automotive, optometry and chiropractics.
The transaction is expected to add one to two percentage points to Intuit’s revenue growth in fiscal 2013. The deal is expected to close in May.