Australian software vendor Reckon says that it will not renew an agreement under which it has been selling Quicken and QuickBooks down under since 2010. The agreement expires on February 14, 2014. After that, Reckon can continue developing products based on Intuit technology, but cannot sell them under the Intuit brand, the company said in a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange. Reckon says it will save about $6.2 million annually in royalty payments.
Reckon, based in North Sydney, has sold the Intuit desktop product under the deal that was effective on Dec. 6, 2010. But since then, it has increasingly turned to marketing online products and services, as has Intuit. Reckon said the paths of the two companies have diverged on the web. Reckon has launched QuickBooks Hosted, but also developed Reckon CashBook Online for smaller end users. There is also the APS Private Cloud that enables accounting firms to host applications in the cloud, a POS cloud offering and Elite Practice Management Software for smaller firms, another Internet-based application.
In an article published in the Financial Review, Reckon's CEO Clive Rabie, said that having Intuit dictate how it could use its brand limited his company. He was reported as having told Intuit officials, "either you have to buy us or let us be free." Reckon had about $95 million in revenue for 2011. The news article said that Intuit and Reckon have had a 20-year relationship.
The end of the deal apparently would leave Intuit free to move into Australia on its own at a time when the American company is trying to ramp up operations internationally, particularly in English-speaking countries.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
