Intuit announced it will divest QuickBase, Quicken and Demandforce as part of its strategy to invest in the businesses that strengthen the ecosystem and align with their strategic goals to be the operating system behind small business success, and to do the nations' taxes in the US and Canada.
This news, released with their Q4 and annual report, will certainly turn a few heads, but will it really impact how those who work with QuickBase do business? Perhaps in the short term as there is a reduction in investment (it's probably already taking place) from Intuit and maybe in the short term there will be some customer service issues as the employees lose their focus due to the natural fear and angst that comes with this type of announcement. But in the long run, if the new owners want to build on the apparent success of QuickBase, maybe they'll let the team do what it does best.
Allison Mnookin, General Manager and Leader of QuickBase, released a video statement in which she touts the strength of the business as "one of the fastest growing units of the company with over 500,000 paid users including being used by over half of the Fortune 100." She goes on to say that Intuit's focus is on the small business and QuickBase serves the broader market, which was a big factor in the decision to divest.
The video is only about 2 and a half minutes, so click here to view it.
Only time will tell what this really means to the users and to the developers working with QuickBase, but this is certainly not the first business to be divested and it will not be the last. We hope it is a smooth and easy transition for everyone involved, however.