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There's a logic to the Department of Justice's efforts to block H&R Block's purchase 2SS Holdings, the parent of TaxAct. Block is the dominant player in retail tax preparation and it has its own consumer tax preparation software, H&R Block @Home, the former TaxCut line. But it's a logic that made more sense 20 years ago.

Block is not a commanding leader trying to aggrandize market share. It's trying to prop up a bit wobbly operation. The real giant is Intuit and if Intuit had tried to buy TaxAct, I'd be urging the the DOJ on. I'd say the same thing if Sage tried to sell Peachtree to Intuit (a very unlikely event). But I don't think Intuit needed TaxAct that badly.

That's because it's Intuit that's the steam roller in this market and it's done a very good job of keeping Block at bay in the tax software market while taking share away from the retail chains.

Besides, it's not like by buying TaxAct, either party would be picking up that much market share. The best it might have is technology that would improve the purchaser's software.

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