Intuit to Buy 19% Stake in Excite

Mountain View-based Intuit Inc. said it agreed to pay $40 million for a 19% stake in Internet search site operator Excite Inc. The companies also entered a seven-year agreement to develop sites on the World Wide Web where customers can manage their finances. Both companies see financial services on the Web as a potentially big source of additional revenue. Under the agreement, Intuit will buy 2.9 million shares of Excite at $13.50 a share. The companies announced the agreement after the market closed, but Excite’s stock had jumped $2.25 to close at $15.375 on Nasdaq. Intuit closed down 50 cents at $24.50, also on Nasdaq. Intuit is best known for Quicken, the best-selling electronic personal finance program. In the last year, however, the company has been concentrating on selling financial services such as insurance policies over the Internet to wean itself from its flagging software business. Redwood City-based Excite operates Web sites that help Internet surfers find documents or other sites of interest. This summer, Intuit and Excite will introduce a financial site with news, stock quotes and financial directories, the companies said. They expect to make money from advertising on the site and fees for a cut of financial services sold.