Intuit will be spending sum of $170 million to purchase online personal finance rival Mint, which is surely no small amount for the free personal finance service named one of 'The 100 Best Products of 2008' by PC World.

Since long, the world of personal finance software has been dominated by Intuit, with Quicken in all of its versions. In fact, ever since the conception of personal finance software, Intuit has been the biggest player in retail personal finance software, with Quicken being a household name virtually.

Though Intuit's primary competitor was Microsoft Money; however, the beginning of this year witnessed Microsoft bailing out of the personal finance software market. "With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed," specified a Microsoft's statement on its site announcing the end of Microsoft Money.

A lot of efforts have been made by Intuit to find out how to make a name in Web and adjust its products and services to evolve with the times.

However, a quick growth online has been witnessed in startups like Mint and SmartyPig, while Intuit stumbles along with Quicken. com. Mint claims that it experienced an impressive increase in its users from 3,000 to more than 800,000 users in a matter of months. However, Intuit states the claims as false.

"Ultimately, though, Intuit could not ignore the success and popularity of its free, Web-based competitors. By purchasing Mint, Intuit acquires a successful Web-based personal finance service to help catapult its online efforts. It doesn't hurt that the purchase also eliminates its biggest competitor at the same time," said a source who said that there are different advantages for Intuit and Quicken users, "but the value of this merger to Mint users is less obvious. Quicken does have an established relationship with an extensive network of banks and financial institutions, which could benefit Mint users, though it remains to be seen whether the company will extend those benefits to nonpaying customers."