Intuit Inc shares plunged $17 at the opening to around $57 and Microsoft Corp was off $1.375 at $84 in response to the news on Saturday that Microsoft had decided to call the whole thing off. The decision to abandon the takeover was foreshadowed late Friday when the Justice Department accused attorneys for Microsoft and Intuit of acting in bad faith and asked the judge set to hear the Justice Department’s challenge to the deal to extend the trial deadline: both sides had wanted a speedy resolution, but Justice complained that defence attorneys wouldn’t agree to what he called routine stipulations such as unequivocal statements made by company officials in documents and the percentage of homes with IBM-compatible personal computers that would resolve basic legal issues and keep the trial on its expedited schedule. Microsoft says it walked away from the deal because the prospective delays meant that it was paralysed and unable to pursue the developments for which it wanted Intuit; it will now cancel the deal under which it was to have transferred Money to Novell Inc, and says it is excited about the upcoming Money 4 release. Microsoft will pay Intuit a termination fee of $46.25m. On Saturday, Intuit said it did not want to merge with anyone other than Microsoft. We have no interest – none, zero, zip – in a merger, founder Scott Cook said. We saw the Microsoft opportunity as a really unique one, he said. We don’t see anything else out there like that. He emphasised that Intuit and Microsoft were now likely to be vigorous competitors, adding that he was happy that no confidential information had changed hands with Microsoft during the months the deal was pending. Hesh Wiener – The Microsoft-Intuit Break-Up.
