By Michael V. Copeland
The last time Microsoft walked away from a major acquisition was more than a decade ago. It was 1995 and a $2 billion bid to buy financial software company Intuit fell apart under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice. While there are clear differences between Microsoft’s Intuit deal and its failed attempt to buy Yahoo, a look at what happened within Microsoft after the Intuit bid collapsed offers a preview how things might play out now.
Intuit makes Quicken, the leading personal financial software program. And before trying to buy Intuit, Microsoft had tried to beat it with its own software program, Microsoft Money. Microsoft launched Money in 1991 as a way to get a bigger chunk of the consumer software business (Microsoft Office was yet to come to market), and specifically to get a piece of computerized banking. Personal finance was one of the tasks that helped drive personal computer sales. Think back: in the pre-Internet era of the early ‘90s, a PC let you write documents, build a spreadsheet, and track your spending – that was about it.
Microsoft Money did not capture the hearts and checkbooks of anyone, and became a perennial also-ran (not unlike Microsoft’s web effort MSN). Quicken captured about 90% of the market, the rest was divided among three or four other players including Microsoft’s Money. By 1994, Microsoft was done playing around. Rather than try to beat Intuit, it would simply buy it. Here’s how it went down according to several former Money folks.
On a morning in October1994 everyone on the Money team received a phone call at around 7 a.m., telling them to be at a work by 8 a.m. No explanations. At 8 a.m. an unmarked bus rolls up to the Microsoft campus, and the money team is told to get in. No explanations. The team is deposited in a drab conference room at a Bellevue, Wash., hotel and told to wait. No explanations. About 45 minutes later Bill Gates walks in and explains that Microsoft is about to announce its intention to buy Intuit, and answers a few questions. The Money team waits at the hotel until the market closes.
But Gates and his team knew that there might be anti-competitive flags raised. The weirdest part of whole day was the explanation that not only did Gates want to replace the Money product with Quicken, but to do that Microsoft needed to sell off a new version of Money to Novell and therefore sidestep what were likely be complaints from the Justice Department. So the Money team had to get back to work on a product that Microsoft didn’t really want, to buy a company it did want. (Again, what are you thinking if you are hunkered down at MSN?)
Unlike Yahoo , Intuit Chairman Scott Cook agreed to the purchase. (Though according to some on the Money team, it was implied that if had not he and Intuit would face the full Microsoft Death Star fury, that is, they would put everything they had smarts-wise and money-wise in to beating Quicken if he didn’t acquiesce.) It was left to the Department of Justice to raise enough questions that it became obvious to Gates and his team that fighting a protracted battle to buy Intuit might ultimately fail, and in the process kill off whatever audience Microsoft Money had. So Gates bailed on Intuit.
That didn’t mean he bailed on the space, and here is where you are likely to see a similar push post-Yahoo (if it is indeed over). Microsoft took all its focus and much of its money and doubled down on Money. The product improved dramatically. Money 1995 actually found an audience, and all the sudden it was a two-horse race with Intuit. Money grabbed about 35% to 40% of the market, Quicken the rest.
MSN in many ways is like Microsoft Money – it has never been on top. But the culture at Microsoft has always been one of intelligence if not arrogance. It doesn’t matter if MSN isn’t on top, there is a belief that Microsoft’s bench will figure out a way to put it there. “People at Microsoft still believe that they are smarter than everyone else,” says one former Money team member who asked not to be identified. “So just because the current team hasn’t unlocked the door to the Web, doesn’t mean another team won’t. And if they do, they’ll be heroes.”
If the Yahoo deal is indeed dead, you can bet that MSN will get the people and the resources it needs to make a run at Yahoo and in the grander scheme, Google (GOOG). Microsoft has already shown its commitment – $46 billion worth in the Yahoo bid – putting up a real contender in the fight for the web. As with Microsoft Money it’s likely to double, quadruple down it’s own efforts. But as one former Money team member points out, the question is, can Microsoft win or just put up a good fight?
“The epilogue is, as good as we all thought it was, as much progress as we made, Money never became the dominant player,” says Jan Miksovsky, the lead designer on Money 1995 and part of the Money team through 2000. “Intuit remained the market leader and has gotten stronger in other areas. When I look back I was personally gratified to see the Intuit deal fall apart, says Miksovsky, who went on to co-found online calendaring startup Cozi. “But my sense now is that Microsoft would have been in a much stronger position had the deal gone through and they acquired Intuit.”
The question for Microsoft now is, can MSN battle Google with the team and the audience it has or does it remain an also-ran. You will see Microsoft make a move within MSN to catch its competition – it has to. But it needs to be at a pace that will allow the software giant to catch up, and fast.
