UNITED STATESSECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
FORM 10-Q
Commission File Number 0-21180
INTUIT INC.
2700 Coast Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 944-6000
Indicate by a check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports); and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.Yes [ X ] No [ ]
Indicate by a check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).Yes [ X ] No [ ]
Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuers classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.
Approximately 187,432,204 shares of Common Stock, $0.01 par value, as of November 30, 2004
INTUIT INC.FORM 10-QINDEX
Intuit, the Intuit logo, QuickBooks, Quicken, Quicken.com, TurboTax, ProSeries, Lacerte and Track-It!, among others, are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States and other countries. Intuit MasterBuilder, MRI and Intuit Eclipse, among others, are pending or common-law trademarks and/or service marks of Intuit Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States and other countries. Other parties marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such.
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PART I
INTUIT INC.CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
See accompanying notes.
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INTUIT INC.CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
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INTUIT INC.CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
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INTUIT INC.NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS(UNAUDITED)
1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The condensed consolidated financial statements include the financial statements of Intuit and its wholly owned subsidiaries. We have eliminated all significant intercompany balances and transactions in consolidation. We have reclassified certain other amounts previously reported in our financial statements to conform to the current presentation. As discussed in Note 5, in August 2004 management formally approved a plan to sell our Intuit Public Sector Solutions business. Accordingly, we have reclassified our financial statements for all periods presented to reflect IPSS as discontinued operations. Unless noted otherwise, discussions in these notes pertain to our continuing operations.
We have included all normal recurring adjustments and the adjustments for discontinued operations that we considered necessary to give a fair presentation of our operating results for the periods presented. These condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes should be read together with the audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2004 included in Intuits Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 24, 2004. Results for the three months ended October 31, 2004 do not necessarily indicate the results we expect for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2005 or any other future period. Our tax and QuickBooks-Related businesses are highly seasonal, with sales of tax preparation products and services heavily concentrated in the period from November through April and QuickBooks software license renewals revenue concentrated around calendar year end. These seasonal patterns mean that our quarterly total net revenue is usually highest during our second and third fiscal quarters.
Use of Estimates
We make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and the disclosures made in the accompanying notes. For example, we use estimates in determining the appropriate levels of reserves for product returns and rebates, the collectibility of accounts receivable, the appropriate levels of various accruals, the amount of our worldwide tax provision and the realizability of deferred tax assets. We also use estimates in determining the remaining economic lives and carrying values of purchased intangible assets (including goodwill), property and equipment and other long-lived assets. In addition, we use assumptions when employing the Black-Scholes valuation model to estimate the fair value of stock options granted for pro forma disclosures. See Note 1, Stock-Based Incentive Programs. Despite our intention to establish accurate estimates and use reasonable assumptions, actual results may differ from our estimates.
Net Revenue
We derive revenue from the sale of packaged software products, license fees, product support, professional services, outsourced payroll services, merchant services, transaction fees and multiple element arrangements that may include any combination of these items. We recognize revenue for software products and related services in accordance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Statement of Position, or SOP, 97-2, Software Revenue Recognition, as modified by SOP 98-9. For other offerings, we follow Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 104, Revenue Recognition. We recognize revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, we have delivered the product or performed the service, the fee is fixed or determinable and collectibility is probable.
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In some situations, we receive advance payments from our customers. We also offer multiple element arrangements to our customers. We defer revenue associated with these advance payments and the fair value of undelivered elements until we ship the products or perform the services. Deferred revenue consisted of the following at the dates indicated:
In accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Boards Emerging Issues Task Force Issue No. 01-9, Accounting for Consideration Given by a Vendor to a Customer or a Reseller of the Vendors Product, we account for cash consideration (such as sales incentives) that we give to our customers or resellers as a reduction of revenue rather than as an operating expense unless we receive a benefit that we can identify and for which we can reasonably estimate the fair value.
Product Revenue
We recognize revenue from the sale of our packaged software products and supplies when we ship the products or, in the case of certain agreements, when products are delivered to retailers. We sell some of our QuickBooks, Consumer Tax and Quicken products on consignment to a limited number of resellers. We recognize revenue for these consignment transactions only when the end-user sale has occurred.
We reduce product revenue from distributors and retailers for estimated returns that are based on historical returns experience and other factors, such as the volume and price mix of products in the retail channel, return rates for prior releases of the product, trends in retailer inventory and economic trends that might impact customer demand for our products (including the competitive environment and the timing of new releases of our product). We also reduce product revenue for the estimated redemption of rebates on certain current product sales. Our estimated reserves for distributor and retailer sales incentive rebates are based on distributors and retailers actual performance against the terms and conditions of rebate programs, which we typically establish annually. Our reserves for end user rebates are estimated based on the terms and conditions of the specific promotional rebate program, actual sales during the promotion, the amount of redemptions received and historical redemption trends by product and by type of promotional program.
Service Revenue
We recognize revenue from outsourced payroll processing and payroll tax filing services as the services are performed, provided we have no other remaining obligations to these customers. We generally require customers to remit payroll tax funds to us in advance of the applicable payroll due date via electronic funds transfer. We include in total net revenue the interest earned on invested balances resulting from timing differences between when we collect these funds from customers and when we remit the funds to outside parties.
We offer several technical support plans and recognize support revenue over the life of the plans. Service revenue also includes Web services such as TurboTax for the Web and electronic tax filing services in both our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax segments. Service revenue for electronic payment processing services that we provide to merchants is recorded net of interchange fees charged by credit card associations because we do not control these fees. Finally, service revenue includes revenue from consulting and training services, primarily in our Intuit-Branded Small Business segment. We generally recognize revenue as these services are performed, provided that we have no other remaining obligations to these customers and that the services performed are not essential to the functionality of delivered products and services.
Other Revenue
Other revenue consists primarily of revenue from revenue-sharing arrangements with third-party service providers and from online advertising agreements. We recognize transaction fees from revenue-sharing arrangements as end-user sales are reported to us by these partners. We typically recognize revenue from online advertising agreements as the lesser of when the advertisements are displayed or pro rata based on the contractual time period of the advertisements.
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Multiple Element Arrangements
We enter into certain revenue arrangements for which we are obligated to deliver multiple products and/or services (multiple elements). For these arrangements, which generally include software products, we allocate and defer revenue for the undelivered elements based on their vendor-specific objective evidence, or VSOE, of fair value. VSOE is generally the price charged when that element is sold separately.
In situations where VSOE exists for all elements (delivered and undelivered), we allocate the total revenue to be earned under the arrangement among the various elements, based on their relative fair value. For transactions where VSOE exists only for the undelivered elements, we defer the full fair value of the undelivered elements and recognize the difference between the total arrangement fee and the amount deferred for the undelivered items as revenue. If VSOE does not exist for undelivered items that are services, then we recognize the entire arrangement fee ratably over the remaining service period. If VSOE does not exist for undelivered elements that are specified products or features, we defer revenue until the earlier of the delivery of all elements or the point at which we determine VSOE for these undelivered elements.
We recognize revenue related to the delivered products or services only if: (1) the above revenue recognition criteria are met; (2) any undelivered products or services are not essential to the functionality of the delivered products and services; (3) payment for the delivered products or services is not contingent upon delivery of the remaining products or services; and (4) we have an enforceable claim to receive the amount due in the event that we do not deliver the undelivered products or services.
For arrangements where undelivered services are essential to the functionality of delivered software, we recognize both the product license revenue and service revenue under the percentage of completion contract method in accordance with the provisions of SOP 81-1, Accounting for Performance of Construction Type and Certain Production Type Contracts. To date, product license and service revenues recognized pursuant to SOP 81-1 have not been significant.
Shipping and Handling
We record the amounts we charge our customers for the shipping and handling of our software products as product revenue and we record the related costs as cost of product revenue on our statement of operations. Product revenue from shipping and handling is not significant.
Per Share Computations
We compute basic income or loss per share using the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. We compute diluted income or loss per share using the weighted average number of common and dilutive common equivalent shares outstanding during the period. Common equivalent shares consist of the shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options under the treasury stock method and vested restricted stock awards. In loss periods, basic and diluted loss per share are identical since the effect of common equivalent shares is anti-dilutive and therefore excluded.
For the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003 we excluded 10.0 million and 10.8 million common equivalent shares from our diluted per share computations because we experienced net losses in those periods.
Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments
We consider highly liquid investments with maturities of three months or less at the date of purchase to be cash equivalents. Cash equivalents consist primarily of money market funds in all periods presented. Short-term investments consist of available-for-sale debt securities that we carry at fair value. We use the specific identification method to compute gains and losses on short-term investments. We include unrealized gains and losses on short-term investments, net of tax, in stockholders equity. Available-for-sale debt securities are classified as current assets based upon our intent and ability to use any and all of these securities as necessary to satisfy the significant short-term liquidity requirements that may arise from the highly seasonal and cyclical nature of our businesses. Because of our significant business seasonality, stock repurchase programs and acquisition opportunities, cash flow requirements may fluctuate dramatically from quarter to quarter and require us to use a significant amount of the short-term investments held as available-for-sale securities. See Note 2.
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Funds Held for Payroll Customers and Payroll Customer Fund Deposits
Funds held for payroll customers represent cash held on behalf of our payroll customers that is invested in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments. Payroll customer fund deposits consist primarily of payroll taxes we owe on behalf of our payroll customers.
Goodwill, Purchased Intangible Assets and Other Long-lived Assets
We record goodwill when the purchase price of net tangible and intangible assets we acquire exceeds their fair value. We amortize the cost of identified intangible assets on a straight-line basis over periods ranging from two to seven years.
We regularly perform reviews to determine if the carrying values of our long-lived assets are impaired. In accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, we review goodwill and other intangible assets that have indefinite useful lives for impairment at least annually in our fourth fiscal quarter, or more frequently if an event occurs indicating the potential for impairment. In accordance with SFAS 144, Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets, we review intangible assets that have finite useful lives and other long-lived assets when an event occurs indicating the potential for impairment. In our reviews, we look for facts or circumstances, either internal or external, indicating that we may not recover the carrying value of the asset. We measure impairment losses related to long-lived assets based on the amount by which the carrying amounts of these assets exceed their fair values. Our measurement of fair value is generally based on a blend of an analysis of the present value of estimated future discounted cash flows and a comparison of revenue and operating income multiples for companies of similar industry and/or size. Our analysis is based on available information and reasonable and supportable assumptions and projections. The discounted cash flow analysis considers the likelihood of possible outcomes and is based on our best estimate of projected future cash flows. If necessary, we perform subsequent calculations to measure the amount of the impairment loss based on the excess of the carrying value over the fair value of the impaired assets.
Stock-Based Incentive Programs
We provide equity incentives to our employees and to our Board members. We apply the intrinsic value recognition and measurement principles of Accounting Principles Board (APB) Opinion No. 25,Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees, in accounting for stock-based incentives. Accordingly, we are not required to record compensation expense when stock options are granted to eligible participants as long as the exercise price is not less than the fair market value of the stock when the option is granted. We are also not required to record compensation expense in connection with our Employee Stock Purchase Plan as long as the purchase price of the stock is not less than 85% of the lower of the fair market value at the beginning of each offering period or at the end of each purchase period.
In October 1995 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued SFAS 123, Accounting for Stock Based Compensation, and in December 2002 the FASB issued SFAS 148, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation Transition and Disclosure. Although these pronouncements allow us to continue to follow the APB 25 guidelines and not record compensation expense for most employee stock-based awards, we are required to disclose our pro forma net income or loss and net income or loss per share as if we had adopted SFAS 123 and SFAS 148. The pro forma impact of applying SFAS 123 and SFAS 148 in the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003 does not necessarily represent the pro forma impact in future quarters or years.
On March 31, 2004 the FASB issued its exposure draft, Share-Based Payment, which is a proposed amendment to SFAS 123. The exposure draft would require all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options and purchases under employee stock purchase plans, to be recognized in the statement of operations based on their fair values. The FASB expects to issue a final standard late in 2004 that would be effective for public companies for interim and annual periods beginning after June 15, 2005. We have not yet assessed the impact of adopting this new standard.
To determine the pro forma impact of applying SFAS 123, we estimate the fair value of our options using the Black-Scholes option valuation model. This model was developed for use in estimating the fair value of traded options that have no vesting restrictions and are fully transferable. This model also requires the input of highly subjective assumptions including the expected stock price volatility. Our stock options have characteristics significantly
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different from those of traded options, and changes in the subjective input assumptions can materially affect the fair value estimates.
Assumptions used for the valuation model are set forth below. Prior to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, we estimated the volatility factors for stock options and for our Employee Stock Purchase Plan using the historical volatility of our stock over the most recent five-year period. Beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, we estimated the volatility factor for stock options using the historical volatility of our stock over the most recent three-year period, which is approximately equal to the average expected life of our options. Also beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004, we estimated the volatility factor for our Employee Stock Purchase Plan using the historical volatility of our stock over the most recent one-year period, which is equal to the length of the offering periods under that plan.
The following table illustrates the effect on our net income or loss and net income or loss per share if we had applied the fair value recognition provisions of SFAS 123 to stock-based incentives using the Black Scholes valuation model. For purposes of this reconciliation, we add back to previously reported net income or loss all stock-based incentive expense we have recorded that relates to acquisitions. We then deduct the pro forma stock-based incentive expense determined under the fair value method for all awards including those that relate to acquisitions. The pro forma stock-based incentive expense has no impact on our cash flow. In the future, we may elect or be required to use a different valuation model, which could result in a significantly different impact on our pro forma net income or loss.
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Concentration of Credit Risk and Significant Customers and Suppliers
We operate in markets that are highly competitive and rapidly changing. Significant technological changes, changes in customer requirements, the emergence of competitive products or services with new capabilities and other factors could negatively impact our operating results.
We are also subject to risks related to changes in the values of our significant balance of short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers. Our portfolio of short-term investments consists of investment-grade securities and our funds held for payroll customers consist of cash and cash equivalents and investment-grade securities. Except for direct obligations of the United States government, securities issued by agencies of the United States government, and money market or cash management funds, we diversify our short-term investments by limiting our holdings with any individual issuer.
We sell a significant portion of our products through third-party retailers and distributors. As a result, we face risks related to the collectibility of our accounts receivable. To appropriately manage this risk, we perform ongoing evaluations of customer credit and limit the amount of credit extended as we deem appropriate but generally do not require collateral. We maintain reserves for estimated credit losses and these losses have historically been within our expectations. However, since we cannot necessarily predict future changes in the financial stability of our customers, we cannot guarantee that our reserves will continue to be adequate.
We sell a significant proportion of our software products directly to many retailers rather than through a few major distributors. No distributor or individual retailer accounted for 10% or more of total net revenue in the three months ended October 31, 2004 or 2003, nor did any customer account for 10% or more of accounts receivable at October 31, 2004 or July 31, 2004. Amounts due from the purchaser of our former Quicken Loans mortgage business under certain licensing and distribution agreements comprised 10.3% of accounts receivable at July 31, 2004. Amounts due from the purchaser of Quicken Loans at October 31, 2004 were nominal.
We rely on three third-party vendors to perform the manufacturing and distribution functions for our primary retail desktop software products. We also have a key single-source vendor for our financial supplies business that prints and fulfills orders for all of our checks and most other products for our financial supplies business. While we believe that relying heavily on key vendors improves the efficiency and reliability of our business operations, relying on any one vendor for a significant aspect of our business can have a significant negative impact on our revenue and profitability if that vendor fails to perform at acceptable service levels for any reason, including financial difficulties of the vendor.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
On October 22, 2004 the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 was signed into law by the President. This Act included tax relief for domestic manufacturers, which includes producers of computer software, by providing a tax deduction of 3% for fiscal years beginning after December 31, 2004 and 2005, 6% for fiscal years beginning after December 31, 2006, 2007 and 2008, and 9% for fiscal years beginning after December 31, 2009. The deduction percentage is applied against the lesser of qualified production activities income or taxable income. Any tax rate benefit from this law change will take effect beginning in our fiscal 2006. However, we are awaiting clarifying guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department to determine if we will qualify for this deduction. The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued guidance in FASB Staff Position FAS 109-a providing that this deduction should be accounted for as a special deduction and not as a tax rate reduction. In addition, the Act provided for a special one-time tax deduction for foreign earnings that are repatriated. We do not expect to receive any benefit from this portion of the Act.
2. Short-Term Investments and Funds Held for Payroll Customers
As discussed in Note 1, Concentration of Credit Risk and Significant Customers and Suppliers, our portfolio of short-term investments consists of investment-grade securities and our funds held for payroll customers consist of cash and cash equivalents and investment-grade securities. Except for direct obligations of the United States government, securities issued by agencies of the United States government, and money market or cash management funds, we diversify our short-term investments by limiting our holdings with any individual issuer.
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The following table summarizes our short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers at the dates indicated.
Gross unrealized gains and losses on our available-for-sale debt securities were as follows at the dates indicated:
The following table summarizes the fair value and gross unrealized losses related to 114 available-for-sale debt securities, aggregated by type of investment and length of time that individual securities have been in a continuous unrealized loss position at October 31, 2004:
We periodically review our investment portfolios to determine if any investment is other-than-temporarily impaired due to changes in credit risk or other potential valuation concerns. At October 31, 2004 we believe that the investments that we hold are not other-than-temporarily impaired. While certain available-for-sale debt securities have fair values that are below cost, we believe that it is probable that principal and interest will be collected in accordance with contractual terms, and that the decline in market value is due to changes in interest rates and not due to increased credit risk.
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Gross realized gains and losses on our available-for-sale debt securities were as follows for the periods indicated:
The following table summarizes our available-for-sale debt securities held in short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers, classified by the stated maturity date of the security:
3. Goodwill and Purchased Intangible Assets
Changes in the carrying value of goodwill by reportable segment during the three months ended October 31, 2004 were as follows. Our reportable segments are described in Note 6.
We summarize the following expenses on the acquisition-related charges line on our statement of operations:
At October 31, 2004 we expected amortization of our purchased intangible assets by fiscal period to be as shown in the following table. Amortization of purchased intangible assets is charged primarily to amortization of purchased
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software in cost of revenue and to acquisition-related charges in operating expenses on our statement of operations. Future acquisitions could cause these amounts to increase. In addition, if impairment events occur they could accelerate the timing of charges.
4. Comprehensive Net Income (Loss)
SFAS 130, Reporting Comprehensive Income, establishes standards for reporting and displaying comprehensive net income (loss) and its components in stockholders equity. SFAS 130 requires the components of other comprehensive income (loss), such as changes in the fair value of available-for-sale securities and foreign translation adjustments, to be added to our net income (loss) to arrive at comprehensive net income (loss). Other comprehensive income (loss) items have no impact on our net income (loss) as presented on our statement of operations.
The components of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net of income taxes, were as follows:
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Comprehensive net loss was as follows for the periods indicated:
5. Discontinued Operations
In August 2004 management formally approved a plan to sell our Intuit Public Sector Solutions (IPSS) business, which is part of our Intuit-Branded Small Business segment. In accordance with SFAS 144, Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-lived Assets, we determined that IPSS became a long-lived asset held for sale in the first quarter of fiscal 2005. SFAS 144 provides that a long-lived asset classified as held for sale should be measured at the lower of its carrying amount or fair value less cost to sell. Since the carrying value of IPSS at October 31, 2004 approximated the fair value less cost to sell, no adjustment to the carrying value of this long-lived asset was necessary during the first quarter of fiscal 2005. In accordance with SFAS 144, we discontinued the amortization of IPSS intangible assets in the first quarter of fiscal 2005.
Also in accordance with the provisions of SFAS 144, we determined that IPSS became a discontinued operation during the first quarter of fiscal 2005. Consequently, we have segregated the net assets, operating results and cash flows of IPSS from continuing operations on our balance sheets, statements of operations and statements of cash flows for all periods presented. Revenue for IPSS was $2.8 million and $3.2 million for the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003. Loss before income taxes for IPSS was $0.5 million and $0.8 million for the same periods. The net loss from discontinued operations for the three months ended October 31, 2004 included a $3.4 million income tax provision for the estimated tax payable in connection with the expected tax gain on the sale of IPSS.
On December 3, 2004 we sold IPSS to Kintera, Inc., a California software company, for approximately $11 million. We do not expect a material gain or loss on the sale of IPSS for financial reporting purposes.
6. Industry Segment and Geographic Information
SFAS 131, Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information, establishes standards for the way in which public companies disclose certain information about operating segments in their financial reports. Consistent with SFAS 131, we have defined five reportable segments, described below, based on factors such as how we manage our operations and how our chief operating decision maker views results. We define the chief operating decision maker as the office of the chief executive officer, our chief financial officer and our Board of Directors.
QuickBooks-Related product revenue is derived primarily from QuickBooks desktop software products; QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll, a family of products sold on a subscription basis offering payroll tax tables, forms, electronic tax payment and filing, and in some cases QuickBooks software upgrades to small businesses that prepare their own payrolls; and financial supplies such as paper checks, envelopes and invoices. QuickBooks-Related service revenue is derived primarily from QuickBooks Online Edition, QuickBooks support plans and merchant services provided by our Innovative Merchant Solutions business. Other revenue for this segment consists primarily of royalties from small business online services.
Intuit-Branded Small Business product revenue is derived from business management software for information technology and three selected industries: wholesale durable goods; residential, commercial and corporate property management; and construction. Intuit-Branded Small Business service revenue is derived from technical support,
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consulting and training services for those software products and from outsourced payroll services. Service revenue for this segment also includes interest earned on funds held for payroll customers.
Consumer Tax product revenue is derived primarily from TurboTax federal and state consumer desktop tax return preparation software. Consumer Tax service revenue is derived primarily from TurboTax for the Web online tax return preparation services and consumer electronic filing services.
Professional Tax product revenue is derived primarily from ProSeries and Lacerte professional tax preparation software products. Professional Tax service revenue is derived primarily from electronic filing, bank product transmission and training services.
Other Businesses consist primarily of Quicken and Canada. Quicken product revenue is derived primarily from Quicken desktop software products. Quicken other revenue consists primarily of fees from consumer online transactions and from Quicken-branded credit card and bill payment offerings that we provide through our partners. In Canada, product revenue is derived primarily from localized versions of QuickBooks and Quicken as well as QuickTax and TaxWiz consumer desktop tax return preparation software and ProFile professional tax preparation products. Service revenue in Canada consists primarily of revenue from software maintenance contracts sold with QuickBooks.
Our QuickBooks-Related, Consumer Tax and Professional Tax segments operate solely in the United States. All of our segments sell primarily to customers located in the United States. International total net revenue was less than 5% of consolidated total net revenue for all periods presented.
Corporate includes costs such as corporate general and administrative expenses that are not allocated to specific segments. In addition, corporate includes reconciling items such as acquisition-related costs, which include acquisition-related charges, impairment of goodwill and purchased intangible assets, amortization of purchased software and charges for purchased research and development. Corporate also includes realized net gains or losses on marketable securities and other investments, and interest and other income.
The accounting policies of the reportable segments are the same as those described in the summary of significant accounting policies in Note 1. Except for goodwill and purchased intangible assets, we do not generally track assets by reportable segment and, consequently, we do not disclose assets by reportable segment.
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The following tables show our financial results by reportable segment for the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003.
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7. Other Current Liabilities
Other current liabilities were as follows at the dates indicated:
8. Long-Term Obligations
Long-term obligations were as follows at the dates indicated:
9. Income Taxes
We compute our provision for or benefit from income taxes by applying the estimated annual effective tax rate to income or loss from recurring operations and other taxable items. We recorded income tax benefits on pre-tax losses in the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended October 31, 2004 included benefits received from tax attributes identified during the quarter and a change in tax law during the quarter related to the retroactive extension of federal research and experimental credits and to the impact of recognizing these benefits in a quarter in which we had a net loss.
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The following table reconciles our effective income tax rate to the statutory federal income tax rate for the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003. Although the discrete items for the three months ended October 31, 2004 all reduced the tax owed, they increased the tax rate for the quarter because of the quarters pre-tax loss. For the full fiscal year 2005 these items are expected to reduce our effective tax rate by approximately one percentage point.
10. Stockholders Equity
Stock Repurchase Program
Intuits Board of Directors has initiated a series of common stock repurchase programs. Shares of common stock repurchased under these programs become treasury shares. During the three months ended October 31, 2004 we repurchased 3.9 million shares of our common stock for $170.6 million under these programs. We repurchased 2.2 million shares of our common stock for $103.1 million under these programs during the three months ended October 31, 2003.
Repurchased shares of our common stock are held as treasury shares until they are reissued or retired. When we reissue treasury stock, if the proceeds from the sale are more than the average price we paid to acquire the shares we record an increase in additional paid-in capital. Conversely, if the proceeds from the sale are less than the average price we paid to acquire the shares, we record a decrease in additional paid-in capital to the extent of increases previously recorded for similar transactions and a decrease in retained earnings for any remaining amount.
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Distribution and Dilutive Effect of Options
The following table shows option grants to Named Executives and to all employees for the periods indicated. Named Executives are defined as the Companys chief executive officer and each of the four other most highly compensated executive officers during the fiscal periods presented.
We define net option grants as options granted less options canceled or expired and returned to the pool of options available for grant. Options granted to our Named Executives as a percentage of the total options granted to all employees may vary significantly from quarter to quarter, due in part to the timing of annual performance-based grants to Named Executives.
11. Litigation
Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. v. Intuit Inc., Index No. 03-602942, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.
On September 17, 2003, Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. filed a complaint against Intuit alleging various claims for breach of contract, breach of express and implied covenants of good faith and fair dealing, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation and/or fraud, and promissory estoppel. The allegations relate to Quicken Brokerage powered by Siebert, a strategic alliance between the two companies. The complaint seeks compensatory, punitive, and other damages. On September 22, 2003, Intuit filed an arbitration demand against Siebert & Co., Inc. in San Jose, California seeking arbitration of all claims asserted by both parties. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York has ruled that the matter should proceed in the New York state courts, but the matter is stayed while the court considers Intuits further appeal. Intuit believes this lawsuit is without merit and intends to defend the litigation vigorously in whichever forum it ultimately proceeds.
Intuit/Quicken Sunsetting Litigation, Master File No. 1-04-CV-016394, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara (Anthony Flannery v. Intuit Inc., et al, Civil No. 1-04-CV-016394 and Daniel J. Mason v. Intuit Inc., et al, Civil No. 1-04-CV-018345).
On or about March 19, 2004, plaintiff Anthony Flannery, on his behalf and on behalf of a class of persons allegedly similarly situated, filed a complaint against Intuit in Santa Clara Superior Court, alleging that Intuits retirement of certain services and live technical support associated with its Quicken 1998, Quicken 1999 and Quicken 2000 products constituted a breach of express and implied warranties and violated sections 17200 and 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, as well as the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. The complaint sought certification as a class action, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, disgorgement of profits, restitution, injunctive relief and attorneys fees from Intuit.
On or about April 21, 2004, plaintiff Daniel Mason, on his behalf and on behalf of a class of persons allegedly similarly situated, filed a complaint against Intuit in Santa Clara Superior Court making allegations virtually identical
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to those of Anthony Flannery. On July 14, 2004, the Court consolidated the two cases pursuant to stipulation of the parties.
On July 29, 2004, plaintiffs filed a consolidated First Amended Complaint. On October 8, 2004, Intuit responded to plaintiffs First Amended Complaint by filing demurrers. By Order dated November 12, 2004, the Court granted the demurrers and dismissed all counts of the First Amended Complaint, holding that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court allowed plaintiffs until December 10, 2004 to file a Second Amended Complaint and counsel for the plaintiffs has indicated an intent to make such a filing. If plaintiffs file a Second Amended Complaint, Intuit will defend the litigation vigorously.
Cynthia Belotti v. Intuit Inc., et al, Civil No. 1-04-CV-020277, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara.
On or about May 24, 2004, plaintiff Cynthia Belotti, on her behalf and on behalf of a class of persons allegedly similarly situated, filed a complaint against the Company in Santa Clara Superior Court, alleging that Intuits retirement of certain add-on business services and live technical support associated with its QuickBooks 2001 and QuickBooks 2002 products constituted a breach of express and implied warranties and violated sections 17200 and 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code. The complaint sought certification as a class action, as well as damages, disgorgement of profits, restitution, injunctive relief and attorneys fees from Intuit.
On or about July 13, 2004, plaintiff filed a First Amended Complaint that added Ental Precision Machining, Inc., as plaintiff; plaintiffs counsel has also dismissed without prejudice all claims on behalf of Cynthia Belotti. On October 8, 2004, Intuit responded to plaintiffs First Amended Complaint by filing demurrers. By Order dated November 12, 2004, the Court granted the demurrers and dismissed all counts of the First Amended Complaint, holding that plaintiff failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court allowed plaintiff until December 10, 2004 to file a Second Amended Complaint and counsel for the plaintiff has indicated an intent to make such a filing. If plaintiff files a Second Amended Complaint, Intuit will defend the litigation vigorously.
Other Litigation Matters
Intuit is subject to certain routine legal proceedings, as well as demands, claims and threatened litigation, that arise in the normal course of our business, including assertions that we may be infringing patents or other intellectual property rights of others. We currently believe that the ultimate amount of liability, if any, for any pending claims of any type (either alone or combined) will not materially affect our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. We also believe that we would be able to obtain any necessary licenses or other rights to disputed intellectual property rights on commercially reasonable terms. However, the ultimate outcome of any litigation is uncertain and, regardless of outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on Intuit because of defense costs, negative publicity, diversion of management resources and other factors. Our failure to obtain necessary license or other rights, or litigation arising out of intellectual property claims could adversely affect our business.
12. Related Party Transactions
Loans to Executive Officers and Other Employees
Prior to July 30, 2002, loans to executive officers were generally made in connection with their relocation and purchase of a residence near their new place of work. Consistent with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation enacted on July 30, 2002, we have not made or modified any loans to executive officers since July 30, 2002 and we do not intend to make or modify any loans to executive officers in the future. At October 31, 2004, no loans were overdue and all interest payments were current in accordance with the terms of the loan agreements.
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Long-term loans to executive officers and other employees are a separate line item on our balance sheet. Certain loan amounts are due within twelve months and are therefore classified as prepaid expenses and other current assets on our balance sheet. Loans to executive officers, including these current amounts, were as follows at the dates indicated:
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ITEM 2 MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
We begin our Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) with a discussion of the Critical Accounting Policies that we believe are important to understanding the assumptions and judgments underlying our financial statements. This is followed by a discussion of our Results of Operations that begins with an Overview followed by a more detailed discussion of our revenue and expenses. We then provide an analysis of our Liquidity and Capital Resources with a discussion of key aspects of our statements of cash flows, changes in our balance sheets, and our financial commitments. Following these discussions is the section entitledRisks That Could Affect Future Results, which details some important factors that may significantly impact our future financial performance. You should also note that this MD&A discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Please see the section entitled Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements at the end of this Item 2 for important information to consider when evaluating such statements.
Our QuickBooks, Consumer Tax and Professional Tax businesses are highly seasonal. Some of our other offerings are seasonal, but to a lesser extent. Revenue from upgrades for many of our small business software products, including QuickBooks, tend to be concentrated around calendar year end. Sales of income tax preparation products and services are heavily concentrated in the period from November through April. These seasonal patterns mean that our total net revenue is usually highest during our second quarter ending January 31 and third quarter ending April 30. We typically report losses in our first quarter ending October 31 and fourth quarter ending July 31, when revenue from our tax businesses is minimal while operating expenses to develop new products and services continue at relatively consistent levels.
You should read this MD&A in conjunction with the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes in Item 1. As discussed below, in August 2004 management formally approved a plan to sell our Intuit Public Sector Solutions (IPSS) business. In accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 144, we have classified IPSS as a discontinued operation. We have segregated the net assets, operating results and cash flows of IPSS from continuing operations on our balance sheets, statements of operations and statements of cash flows for all periods presented. Unless otherwise noted, the following discussion pertains only to our continuing operations.
Critical Accounting Policies
In preparing our financial statements, we make estimates, assumptions and judgments that can have a material impact on our net revenue, operating income or loss and net income or loss, as well as on the value of certain assets and liabilities on our balance sheet. We believe that the estimates, assumptions and judgments involved in the accounting policies described below have the greatest potential impact on our financial statements, so we consider these to be our critical accounting policies. Senior management has discussed the selection and development of these critical policies and their disclosure in this Report with the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors.
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Results of Operations
Overview
Total net revenue increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 primarily due to growth in our QuickBooks-Related and Intuit-Branded Small Business segments. Revenue from merchant services, QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll and outsourced payroll was higher in the fiscal 2005 period. Due to the seasonality of the tax business, revenue from our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax segments is nominal in our first fiscal quarter. The markets for many of our products are maturing and as a result we believe that our revenue growth is slowing. While we continue to develop new products and services to mitigate the impact of this slowing growth in the long term, we expect revenue growth to be in the 6% to 9% range for fiscal 2005.
Loss from continuing operations for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 was lower than in the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due to the increase in total net revenue that was only partially offset by higher spending. Net loss (after tax) from continuing operations for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 decreased more than loss from continuing operations due to a higher income tax benefit from tax attributes identified during the quarter and a change in tax law during the quarter, partially offset by lower interest and other income. Fiscal 2005 diluted net loss per share from continuing operations was lower in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 for the foregoing reasons partially offset by a net reduction of average shares outstanding resulting from repurchases of stock under our stock repurchase programs.
At October 31, 2004 our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $759.7 million. In the first quarter of fiscal 2005 we used cash primarily for repurchases of stock under our stock repurchase program, seasonal operating losses and the payment of accrued annual bonuses. We generated cash in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 primarily by selling short-term investments and by issuing common stock under employee stock plans. In the first quarter of fiscal 2005 we bought 3.9 million shares of our common stock under our only active stock repurchase program at an average price of $43.21 for a total price of $170.6 million. At October 31, 2004, authorized funds of $329.4 million remained available under this stock repurchase program.
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Total Net Revenue
We operate in five business segments. The following table summarizes the net revenue for those segments for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 and 2004.
QuickBooks-Related
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QuickBooks-Related total net revenue increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due primarily to higher merchant services revenue and QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll revenue. The increase in merchant services revenue was due primarily to three months of Innovative Merchant Solutions activity in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with one month of activity in the first quarter of fiscal 2004 because we acquired that business in October 2003; growth in the customer base and higher transaction volume per customer; and our discontinuation of the outsourcing of certain merchant processing services beginning in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004. Although we continued to outsource some of our merchant services during the first quarter of fiscal 2005, we recognized the full revenue from processing merchant transactions that were formerly processed through a major bank rather than the smaller profit-sharing fees we would have received under our prior arrangement with that bank. QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll revenue was higher primarily because of growth in the customer base and to a lesser extent because of price increases.
Intuit-Branded Small Business
Intuit-Branded Small Business product revenue is derived primarily from business management software for information technology and three selected industries: wholesale durable goods; residential, commercial and corporate property management; and construction. Intuit-Branded Small Business service revenue is derived from technical support, consulting and training services for those software products and from outsourced payroll services. Service revenue for this segment also includes interest earned on funds held for payroll customers.
Intuit-Branded Small Business total net revenue increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due primarily to higher outsourced payroll revenue that was driven by growth in the number of customers processing payrolls and by price increases.
Consumer Tax
Consumer Tax product revenue is derived primarily from TurboTax federal and state consumer desktop tax return preparation products. Consumer Tax service revenue is derived primarily from TurboTax for the Web online tax return preparation services and consumer electronic filing services.
Due to the seasonal nature of our Consumer Tax business, the first fiscal quarter typically generates only nominal revenue from consumer tax products and services compared with the second and third fiscal quarters. We do not believe that results for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 are indicative of revenue trends for the full year. We will not have substantially complete results for the entire 2004 tax season until late in fiscal 2005.
Professional Tax
Due to the seasonal nature of our Professional Tax business, the first fiscal quarter typically generates only nominal revenue from professional tax products and services compared with the second and third quarters of the fiscal year. We do not believe that results for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 are indicative of revenue trends for the full year. We anticipate that revenue from our Professional Tax electronic filing and bank product transmission services, which we recognize primarily in our third fiscal quarter, will grow more rapidly than revenue from our Professional Tax software in fiscal 2005. We will not have substantially complete results for the entire 2004 tax season until late in fiscal 2005.
Other Businesses
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The increase in Other Businesses total net revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 was due primarily to slightly higher Quicken revenue.
Cost of Revenue
Our cost of revenue has four components: (1) cost of product revenue, which includes the direct costs of manufacturing and shipping our software products; (2) cost of service revenue, which reflects direct costs associated with providing services, including data center costs relating to delivering Internet-based services; (3) cost of other revenue, which includes costs associated with generating advertising and online transactions revenue; and (4) amortization of purchased software, which represents the cost of amortizing over their useful lives developed technologies that we obtained through acquisitions.
The fiscal 2005 decrease in cost of product revenue as a percentage of product revenue was due primarily to the increase in QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll revenue, which had minimal incremental costs.
Cost of service revenue as a percentage of service revenue decreased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due primarily to growth in our merchant services and outsourced payroll businesses, which had minimal incremental costs.
Operating Expenses
We define core operating expenses as the controllable costs of running our business. Selling and marketing expenses include the cost of providing customer service and technical support to customers who have not purchased support plans. Total core operating expenses increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004. Selling and marketing and research and development expenses decreased as a percentage of total net revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 because our revenue grew faster than our spending. General and administrative expenses increased slightly as a percentage of total net revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due to higher spending for infrastructure and implementation of our new information systems.
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Segment Operating Income (Loss)
Segment operating income or loss is segment net revenue less segment cost of revenue and operating expenses. Segment expenses do not include certain costs, such as corporate general and administrative expenses, that are not allocated to specific segments. In addition, segment expenses do not include acquisition-related costs, which include acquisition-related charges, amortization of purchased software and charges for purchased research and development. Segment expenses also do not include realized net gains or losses on marketable securities and other investments, and interest and other income. See Note 6 to the financial statements for reconciliations of total segment operating income or loss to income or loss from continuing operations for each fiscal period presented.
NM is a non-meaningful comparison.
QuickBooks-Related segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue was flat in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due primarily to higher merchant services and QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll net revenue offset by higher spending for QuickBooks product development, technical support, sales and retail merchandising.
Intuit-Branded Small Business had segment operating income in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with a segment operating loss in the first quarter of fiscal 2004. This was due primarily to outsourced payroll revenue growth combined with cost of revenue efficiencies, the consolidation of regional sales facilities and a reorganization of the sales force that resulted in lower spending in that business in the fiscal 2005 period.
Due to the seasonal nature of our Consumer Tax business, we normally experience a segment operating loss in our first fiscal quarter as revenue from consumer tax products and services is nominal while operating expenses to develop new products and services continue at relatively consistent levels. We do not believe that segment operating results for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 are indicative of trends for the full year.
Due to the seasonal nature of our Professional Tax business, we normally experience a segment operating loss in our first fiscal quarter as revenue from professional tax products and services is nominal while operating expenses to develop new products and services continue at relatively consistent levels. We do not believe that segment operating results for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 are indicative of trends for the full year.
Other Businesses segment operating income increased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 due primarily to a slight revenue increase in Quicken on relatively stable spending.
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Non-Operating Income and Expenses
Interest and Other Income
Total interest and other income declined in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004 primarily due to the decrease in net foreign exchange gains. This decrease resulted primarily from our conversion of a significant portion of our Canadian intercompany balances to long-term investments in that subsidiary in the third quarter of fiscal 2004, which reduced our exposure to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. The interest income that we earned on our cash and short-term investment balances also decreased in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2004. This was because average invested balances were lower in the fiscal 2005 quarter due to continued investment in our stock repurchase programs.
Income Taxes
We recorded income tax benefits on pre-tax losses in the three months ended October 31, 2004 and 2003. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended October 31, 2004 was 42% and differed from the federal statutory rate primarily due to the net effect of the benefit received from tax attributes identified in the quarter and a change in tax law during the quarter related to the retroactive extension of federal research and experimental credits and to the impact of recognizing these benefits in a quarter in which we had a net loss, federal research and experimental credits, tax exempt interest income and various state tax credits offset by state taxes. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended October 31, 2003 was 34% and differed from the federal statutory rate primarily due to the net effect of the benefit received from federal research and experimental credits, tax-exempt interest income and various tax credits offset by state taxes. See Note 9 to the financial statements.
At October 31, 2004 we had net deferred tax assets of $159.1 million, which included a valuation allowance of $5.5 million for certain state capital loss carryforwards. We decreased the valuation allowance by $2.0 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 due to the realization of state capital loss carryforwards that were previously thought to be unrealizable and adjustments made to foreign net operating loss carryforwards. The allowance reflects managements assessment that we may not receive the benefit of capital loss carryforwards in certain state jurisdictions. While we believe our current valuation allowance is sufficient, it may be necessary to increase this amount if it becomes more likely that we will not realize a greater portion of the net deferred tax assets. We assess the need for an adjustment to the valuation allowance on a quarterly basis.
Discontinued Operations
In August 2004 management formally approved a plan to sell our Intuit Public Sector Solutions (IPSS) business, which is part of our Intuit-Branded Small Business segment. In accordance with SFAS 144, Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-lived Assets, we determined that IPSS became a long-lived asset held for sale and a discontinued operation in the first quarter of fiscal 2005. Consequently, we have segregated the net assets, operating results and cash flows of IPSS from continuing operations on our balance sheets, statements of operations and statements of cash flows for all periods presented. Also in accordance with SFAS 144, we discontinued the amortization of IPSS purchased intangible assets in the first quarter of fiscal 2005. The net loss from discontinued operations for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 included a $3.4 million income tax provision for the estimated tax payable in connection with the expected tax gain on the sale of IPSS. On December 3, 2004 we sold IPSS to Kintera, Inc., a California software company, for approximately $11 million. We do not expect a material gain or loss on the sale of IPSS for financial reporting purposes.
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
Statement of Cash Flows
At October 31, 2004 our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $759.7 million, a decrease of $259.6 million from July 31, 2004. We used cash for our operations during the first quarter of fiscal 2005, primarily for seasonal operating losses and the payment of accrued annual bonuses. We generated cash from investing activities during the first quarter of fiscal 2005, primarily by selling short-term investments. We used cash for financing activities during the first quarter of fiscal 2005, primarily for the repurchase of stock under our stock repurchase programs. See Stock Repurchase Programs below and Note 10 to the financial statements. This was partially offset by proceeds that we received from the issuance of common stock under employee stock plans.
Stock Repurchase Programs
Intuits Board of Directors has initiated a series of common stock repurchase programs. Shares of common stock repurchased under these programs become treasury shares. During the first quarter of fiscal 2005 we repurchased 3.9 million shares of our common stock for $170.6 million under our only active stock repurchase program. At October 31, 2004 authorized funds of $329.4 million remained available under this program.
Outstanding loans to executive officers and other employees totaled $17.0 million at October 31, 2004 and $17.1 million at July 31, 2004. Loans to executive officers are primarily relocation loans that are generally secured by real property and have original maturity dates of up to 10 years. At October 31, 2004 no loans were overdue and all interest payments were current in accordance with the terms of the loan agreements. Consistent with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, no loans to executive officers have been made or modified since July 30, 2002 and we do not intend to make or modify loans to executive officers in the future. See Note 12 to the financial statements.
Other
We evaluate, on an ongoing basis, the merits of acquiring technology or businesses, or establishing strategic relationships with and investing in other companies. We may decide to use cash and cash equivalents to fund such activities in the future.
We believe that our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet anticipated seasonal working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months.
Reserves for Returns and Rebates
Activity in our reserves for product returns and for rebates during the first quarter of fiscal 2005 and comparative balances at October 31, 2003 were as follows:
Due to the seasonality of our business, we compare our returns and rebate reserve balances at October 31, 2004 to the reserve balances at October 31, 2003. The fiscal 2005 increase in our reserve for product returns was due primarily to a higher QuickBooks reserve rate due to expanded distribution and more product lines, partially offset by a lower Quicken reserve rate that was driven by improved channel management. The fiscal 2005 increase in our
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reserve for rebates was due primarily to higher redemption rates and more marketing of current year rebate programs for QuickBooks.
On March 31, 2004 the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued its exposure draft, Share-Based Payment, which is a proposed amendment to SFAS 123. The exposure draft would require all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options and purchases under employee stock purchase plans, to be recognized in the statement of operations based on their fair values. The FASB expects to issue a final standard late in 2004 that would be effective for public companies for interim and annual periods beginning after June 15, 2005. We have not yet assessed the impact of adopting this new standard.
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RISKS THAT COULD AFFECT FUTURE RESULTS
The factors discussed below are cautionary statements that identify important risks and trends that could impact our future operating results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements in this Report. Our fiscal 2004 Form 10-K and other SEC filings contain additional details about these risks, as well as other risks that could affect future results.
We face intense competitive pressures in all of our businesses, potentially from Microsoft in our QuickBooks-Related business and from H&R Block and federal and state taxing authorities in our Consumer Tax business, that may negatively impact our revenue, profitability and market position.
We have formidable competitors and we expect competition to remain intense during fiscal 2005 and beyond. The number, resources and sophistication of the companies with whom we compete has increased as we continue to expand our product and service offerings. Microsoft Corporation, in particular, presents a significant threat to a number of our businesses due to its market position, strategic focus and superior financial resources. Our competitors may introduce new and improved products and services, bundle new offerings with market-leading products, reduce prices, gain better access to distribution channels, advertise aggressively or beat us to market with new products and services. Any of these competitive actions particularly any prolonged price competition could diminish our revenue and profitability and could affect our ability to keep existing customers and acquire new customers. Some additional competitive factors that may impact our businesses are as follows:
QuickBooks-Related. Losing existing or potential QuickBooks customers to competitors causes us to lose potential software revenue and limits our opportunities to sell related products and services such as our financial supplies, QuickBooks do-it-yourself payroll and merchant service offerings. Many competitors and potential competitors provide, or have expressed significant interest in providing, accounting and business management products and services to small businesses. For example, Microsoft currently offers a number of competitive small business offerings and has indicated part of its growth strategy is to focus on small business offerings. In November 2004 Microsoft announced the impending launch of a number of product and service offerings aimed at small businesses, including a product named Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting, which is expected to be integrated with the Microsoft Office product suite. Accordingly, we expect that competition from Microsoft in the small business area will intensify over time with the introduction of these and other offerings that directly compete with our QuickBooks and other offerings. Although we have successfully competed with Microsoft in the past, given its market position and resources Microsofts small business product and service offerings may have a significant negative impact on our revenue and profitability.
Consumer Tax. Our consumer tax business faces significant competition from both the public and private sector. In the public sector we face the risk of federal and state taxing authorities developing or contracting to provide software or other systems to facilitate tax return preparation and electronic filing at no charge to taxpayers.
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Other Segments (Intuit-Branded Small Business, Professional Tax and Other Businesses). Our professional tax offerings face pricing pressure from competitors seeking to obtain our customers through deep product discounts and loss of customers to competitors offering no-frills offerings at low prices. This business also faces competition from competitively-priced integrated accounting solutions that are more complete than our current offerings. The substantial size of our principal competitors in the outsourced payroll services business and our merchant card processing service business benefit from greater economies of scale that may result in pricing pressure for our offerings. In addition, in November 2004 Microsoft announced that it had entered into partnership agreements with ADP and other service providers to offer payroll-related services that interact with its products. The growth of electronic banking and other electronic payment systems is decreasing the demand for checks and consequently causing pricing pressure for our supplies products as competitors aggressively compete for share of this shrinking market. Our Quicken products compete both with Microsoft Money, which is aggressively promoted and priced, and with Web-based electronic banking and personal finance tracking and management tools that are becoming increasingly available at no cost to consumers. These competitive pressures may result in reduced revenue and lower profitability for our Quicken product line and related bill payment service offering.
The growth of our businesses overall is slowing and if we do not continue to introduce new and enhanced products and services our revenues and margins will decline.
We are seeing a slowdown in the revenue growth rate for some of our businesses as they mature. This trend causes our product development efforts to be even more critical to our success. Product and service enhancements are necessary for us to differentiate our offerings from those of our competitors and to motivate our existing customers to purchase upgrades, or annual licenses in the case of our tax offerings. A number of our businesses derive a significant amount of their revenue through one-time upfront license fees and rely on customer upgrades and service offerings that include upgrades to generate a significant portion of their revenues. As our existing products mature, encouraging customers to purchase product upgrades becomes more challenging unless new product releases provide features and functionality that have meaningful incremental value. If we are not able to develop and clearly demonstrate the value of upgraded products to our customers, our upgrade and service revenues will be negatively impacted. Similarly, our business will be harmed if we are not successful in our efforts to develop and introduce new products and services to retain our existing customers, expand our customer base and increase our revenues per customer.
Our new product and service offerings may not achieve market success or may cannibalize sales of our existing products, causing our revenues and earnings to decrease.
Our future success depends in large part upon our ability to identify emerging opportunities in our target markets and our capacity to quickly develop, and sell products and services that satisfy these demands in a cost effective manner. Successfully predicting demand trends is difficult and we may expend a significant amount of resources and management attention on products or services that do not ultimately succeed in their markets. We have encountered difficulty in launching new products and services in the past. For example, in 2003 we ended our Quicken Brokerage service offering due to lack of customer acceptance. If we misjudge customer needs, our new products and services will not succeed and our revenues and earnings will be negatively impacted. In addition, as we expand our offerings to new customer categories we run the risk of customers shifting from higher priced and higher margin products to newly introduced lower priced offerings.
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The nature of our products necessitates timely product launches and if we experience significant product quality problems or delays, it will harm our revenues, operating income and reputation.
All of our tax products, and many of our non-tax products, have rigid development timetables that increase the risk of errors in our products and the risk of launch delays. Many of our products are highly complex and require interoperability with other software products and services. Our tax preparation software product development cycle is particularly challenging due to the need to incorporate unpredictable tax law and tax form changes each year and because our customers expect high levels of accuracy and a timely launch of these products to prepare and file their taxes by April 15th. Due to this complexity and the condensed development cycles under which we operate our products sometimes contain bugs that can unexpectedly interfere with the operation of the software. For example, our software may face interoperability difficulties with software operating systems or programs being used by our customers. When we encounter problems we may be required to modify our code, distribute patches to customers that had already purchased the product and recall or repackage existing product inventory in our distribution channels. If we encounter development challenges or discover errors in our products late in our development cycle it may cause us to delay our product launch date. Any major defects or launch delays could lead to the following:
If we fail to maintain reliable and responsive service levels for our electronic tax offerings, or if the IRS or other governmental agencies experience difficulties in receiving customer submissions, we could lose revenue and customers.
Our Web-based tax preparation and electronic filing services are an important and growing part of our tax businesses and must effectively handle extremely heavy customer demand during the peak tax season from January to April. We face significant risks and challenges in maintaining these services and maintaining adequate service levels, particularly during peak volume service times. Similarly, governmental entities receiving electronic tax filings must also handle large volumes of data and may experience difficulties with their systems preventing the receipt of electronic filings. If customers are unable to file their returns electronically they may elect to make paper filings. This would result in reduced electronic tax return preparation and filing revenues and profits and would negatively impact our reputation and ability to keep and attract customers who demand a reliable electronic filing experience. We have experienced relatively brief unscheduled interruptions in our electronic filing and/or tax preparation services during past tax years. For example, on April 15, 2003 we experienced a relatively brief unscheduled interruption in our electronic filing service during which certain users of our professional tax products were unable to receive confirmation from us that their electronic filing had been accepted and on April 15, 2002 we reached maximum capacity for processing e-filings for a short period of time. If we experience any prolonged difficulties with our Web-based tax preparation or electronic filing service at any time during the tax season, we could lose current and future customers, receive negative publicity and incur increased operating costs, any of which could have a significant negative impact on the financial and market success of these businesses and have a negative impact on our near-term and long-term financial results.
Our revenue and earnings are highly seasonal and our quarterly results fluctuate significantly.
Several of our businesses are highly seasonal causing significant quarterly fluctuations in our financial results. Revenue and operating results are usually strongest during the second and third fiscal quarters ending January 31 and April 30 due to our tax businesses contributing most of their revenue during those quarters and the timing of the release of our small business software upgrades. We experience lower revenues, and significant operating losses, in the first and fourth quarters ending October 31 and July 31. For example, in the second and third quarters of our last two fiscal years we had aggregate revenue of between $558.1 million and $713.0 million while in our first and fourth fiscal quarters we had aggregate revenue of between $212.9 million and $275.9 million. Our financial results can also fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, including changes in product sales mix that affect average selling prices, product release dates, the timing of our discontinuance of support for older
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product offerings, the timing of sales of our higher-priced Intuit-Branded Small Business offerings, our methods for distributing our products, including the shift to a consignment model for some of our desktop products sold through retail distribution channels, and the timing of acquisitions, divestitures, and goodwill and purchased intangible asset impairment charges.
As our product and service offerings become more complex our revenue streams become less predictable.
Our expanding range of products and services generates more varied revenue streams than our traditional desktop software businesses. The accounting policies that apply to these revenue streams are more complex than those that apply to our traditional products and services. We expect this trend to continue as we acquire additional companies and expand our offerings. For example, as we begin to offer additional features and options as part of multiple-element revenue arrangements, we could be required to defer a higher percentage of our product revenue at the time of sale than we do for traditional products. This would decrease recognized revenue at the time products are shipped, but result in increased recognized revenue in fiscal periods after shipment. For example, some of our TurboTax offerings provide for both use of our software and filing of returns electronically, causing some of our revenue to be deferred until the time of the actual filing of tax returns by our customers. In addition, our Intuit-Branded Small Business segment businesses offer products and services with significantly higher prices than our traditional core business software products. Revenue from these offerings tends to be less predictable than revenue from our traditional desktop products due to longer sales and implementation cycles, which could cause our quarterly revenue from these businesses to fluctuate.
Acquisition-related costs and impairment charges can cause significant fluctuation in our net income.
Our recent acquisitions have resulted in significant expenses, including amortization of purchased software (which is reflected in cost of revenue), as well as charges for in-process research and development, and amortization and impairment of goodwill, purchased intangible assets and deferred compensation (which are reflected in operating expenses). Total acquisition-related costs in the categories identified above were $196.0 million in fiscal 2002, $56.6 million in fiscal 2003 and $56.6 million in fiscal 2004. Fiscal 2003 and 2004 acquisition-related costs declined primarily because of a change in the accounting treatment of goodwill. However, we may incur less frequent, but larger, impairment charges related to the goodwill already recorded and to goodwill arising out of future acquisitions. We test the impairment of goodwill annually in our fourth fiscal quarter or more frequently if indicators of impairment arise. The timing of the formal annual test may result in charges to our statement of operations in our fourth fiscal quarter that could not have been reasonably foreseen in prior periods. For example, at the end of fiscal 2004 we incurred a goodwill impairment charge of $18.7 million related to our Intuit Public Sector Solutions business. At October 31, 2004, we had an unamortized goodwill balance of approximately $659.8 million, which could be subject to impairment charges in the future. New acquisitions, and any impairment of the value of purchased assets, could have a significant negative impact on our future operating results.
If we do not respond promptly and effectively to customer service and technical support inquiries we will lose customers and our revenues will decline.
The effectiveness of our customer service and technical support operations are critical to customer satisfaction and our financial success. If we do not respond effectively to service and technical support requests we will lose customers and miss out on potential revenue opportunities, such as paid service and new product sales. In our service offerings, such as our merchant card processing and outsourced payroll businesses, customer service delivery is fundamental to retaining and maintaining existing customers and acquiring new customers. We occasionally experience customer service and technical support problems, including longer than expected waiting times for customers when our staffing and systems are inadequate to handle a higher-than-anticipated volume of requests. We also risk losing service at any one of our customer contact centers and our redundancy systems could prove inadequate to provide backup support. Training and retaining qualified customer service and technical support personnel is particularly challenging due to the expansion of our product offerings and the seasonality of our tax business. For example, in fiscal 2004 the number of our consumer tax service representatives ranged from 10 during off-season months to about 750 at the peak of the season. If we do not adequately train our support representatives our customers will not receive the level of support that they demand and we strive to deliver. To improve our performance in this area, we must eliminate underlying causes of service and support requests through product improvements, better order fulfillment processes, more robust self-help tools, and improved ability to accurately anticipate demand for support. Implementing any of these improvements can be expensive, time consuming and ultimately prove unsuccessful. If we do not deliver the high level of support that our customers expect for any of the reasons stated above we will lose customers and our financial results will suffer.
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If we encounter problems with our third-party customer service and technical support providers our business will be harmed and margins will decline.
We outsource a substantial portion of our customer support activities to third-party service providers, most significantly to service providers in India. During fiscal 2004 we greatly increased the number of third-party customer service representatives working on our behalf and we expect to continue to rely heavily on third parties in the future. This strategy provides us with lower operating costs and greater flexibility, but also presents risks to our business, including the following:
We depend upon a small number of larger retailers to generate a significant portion of our sales volume for our desktop software products.
We sell most of our desktop software products through our retail distribution channel and a relatively small number of larger retailers generate a significant portion of our sales volume. Our principal retailers have significant bargaining leverage due to their size and available resources. Any change in principal business terms, termination or major disruption of our relationship with these resellers could result in a potentially significant decline in our revenues and earnings. For example, the sourcing decisions, product display locations and promotional activities that retailers undertake can greatly impact the sales of our products. Due to its seasonal nature, sales of TurboTax are particularly impacted by such decisions and if our principal distribution sources were to elect to carry or promote competitive products our revenues would decline. The fact that we also sell our products directly could cause retailers to reduce their efforts to promote our products or stop selling our products altogether. If any of our retailers run into financial difficulties we may be unable to collect amounts that we are owed.
Selling new products may be more challenging and costlier than selling our historical products, causing our margins to decline.
Because our strategy for some of our products involves the routine introduction of new products at retail, if retailers do not offer our new products we will not be able to grow as planned. An outcome of our Right for Me marketing approach is the introduction of additional versions of our products. Retailers may be reluctant to stock unproven products, or products that sell at higher prices, but more slowly. Retailers may also choose to place less emphasis on software as a category within their stores. In addition, it may be costlier for us to market and sell some of our higher priced products due to our need to convey the more customer-specific value of the products to customers rather than communicating more generalized benefits. This may require us to develop other marketing programs that supplement our traditional in-store promotional efforts to sell these products to customers causing our margins to shrink. If retail distribution proves an ineffective channel for certain of our new offerings it could adversely impact our growth, revenue and profitability.
If our manufacturing and distribution suppliers execute poorly our business will be harmed.
We have chosen to outsource the manufacturing and distribution of many of our desktop software products to a small number of third party providers and we use a single vendor to produce and distribute our check and business forms supplies products. Although our reliance on a small number of suppliers, or a single supplier, provides us with
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efficiencies and enhanced bargaining power, poor performance by, or lack of effective communication with, these parties can significantly harm our business. This risk is amplified by the fact that we carry very little inventory and rely on just-in-time manufacturing processes. We have experienced problems with our suppliers in the past. For example, during fiscal 2004 one of our suppliers was unable to fulfill orders for some of our software products for a number of days due to operational difficulties and communication errors. Although together we were able to mitigate the impact of that delay with minimal disruption to our business, if we experience longer delays, delays during a peak demand period or significant quality issues our business will be significantly harmed.
We are implementing new information systems which we use to manage our business and finance operations and problems with the design or implementation of these systems could interfere with our business and operations.
We are in the process of implementing new information systems to replace existing systems that manage our business and finance operations. Due to the size and complexity of our portfolio of businesses, the conversion process is very challenging. We migrated to the new information systems in September 2004 with the upgrade of significant financial systems, order-taking systems, middleware systems (systems to allow for interoperability of different databases) and network security systems. Although the upgraded systems appear to be functioning in a stable manner and performing tasks at acceptable performance levels for our current business demands, we may still encounter difficulties as our business demands increase and as greater functionality from the systems is required. For example, the upgraded systems have not yet been subject to, and may not be able to handle, the demand peaks caused by the seasonal nature of our business. Any disruptions relating to our ongoing performance and system enhancements, particularly any disruptions impacting our operations during our second and third fiscal quarters, could adversely impact our ability to do the following in a timely and accurate manner: take customer orders, ship products, provide services and support to our customers, bill and track our customers, fulfill contractual obligations and otherwise run our business. In addition, any enhancements that are necessary may be more costly than anticipated.
Failure of our information technology systems or those of our service providers could adversely affect our future operating results.
We rely on a variety of internal technology systems and technology systems maintained by our outside manufacturing and distribution suppliers to take and fulfill customer orders, handle customer service requests, host our Web-based activities, support internal operations, and store customer and company data. These systems could be damaged or interrupted, preventing us or our service providers from accepting and fulfilling customer orders or otherwise interrupting our business. In addition, these systems could suffer security breaches, causing company and customer data to be unintentionally disclosed. Any of these occurrences could adversely impact our operations. We have experienced system challenges in the past. For example, during fiscal 2004 some of our non-critical systems were interrupted due to computer viruses that caused loss of productivity and added expense. We also experience computer server failures from time to time. To prevent interruptions we must continually upgrade our systems and processes to ensure that we have adequate recoverability both of which are costly and time consuming. While we and our outside service partners have backup systems for certain aspects of our operations, not all systems upon which we rely are fully redundant and disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities.
Possession and use of personal customer information by our businesses presents risks and expenses that could harm our business.
A number of our businesses possess personal customer information. Possession and use of this information in conducting our business subjects us to regulatory burdens and potential lawsuits. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses to comply with mandatory privacy and security standards and protocols and there is a trend toward greater regulation of privacy. For example, regulations like the recently created federal Do Not Call List, and actions by Internet service providers to limit communications with their subscribers may impede our ability to communicate with our customers and increase our compliance costs. Because our businesses rely heavily on direct marketing, any limitations on our ability to communicate with our customers could harm our financial results. In the past we have experienced lawsuits and negative publicity relating to privacy issues and we could face similar suits in the future. A major breach of customer privacy or security by Intuit, or even another company, could have serious negative consequences for our businesses, including direct damages that we may be required to pay as a result of a breach by us, reduced customer demand for our services and additional regulation by federal or state agencies. Although we have sophisticated network security, internal control measures, and physical security procedures to safeguard customer information, there can be no assurance that a data security breach or theft will not occur resulting in harm to our business and results of operations.
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If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, competitors may exploit our innovations, which could weaken our competitive position and reduce our revenues.
Our success depends upon our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of copyright, trade secret, trademark, patent, confidentiality procedures and licensing arrangements to establish and protect our proprietary rights. As part of our confidentiality procedures, we generally enter into non-disclosure agreements with our employees, contractors, distributors and corporate partners and into license agreements with respect to our software, documentation and other proprietary information. Effectively creating and protecting our proprietary rights is expensive and may require us to engage in expensive and distracting litigation. Despite these precautions, third parties could copy or otherwise obtain and use our products or technology without authorization. Because we outsource significant aspects of our product development, manufacturing and distribution we are at risk that confidential portions of our intellectual property could become public by lapses in security by our contractors. We have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks or copyrighted material, to others. These licensees may take actions that diminish the value of our proprietary rights or harm our reputation. It is also possible that other companies could successfully challenge the validity or scope of our patents and that our patent portfolio, which is relatively small, may not provide us with a meaningful competitive advantage. Ultimately, our attempts to secure legal protection for our proprietary rights may not be adequate and our competitors could independently develop similar technologies, duplicate our products, or design around patents and other intellectual property rights. If our intellectual property protection proves inadequate we could lose our competitive advantage and our financial results will suffer.
We expect copying and misuse of our intellectual property to be a persistent problem causing lost revenue and increased expenses.
Our intellectual property rights are among our most valuable assets. Policing unauthorized use and copying of our products is difficult, expensive, and time consuming. Current U.S. laws that prohibit copying give us only limited practical protection from software piracy and the laws of many other countries provide very little protection. We may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our technology. For example, we frequently encounter unauthorized copies of our software being sold through online auction sites and other online marketplaces. In addition, efforts to protect our intellectual property may be misunderstood and perceived negatively by our customers. For example, during 2003 we employed technology to prohibit unauthorized sharing of our TurboTax products. These efforts were not effectively communicated causing a negative reaction by some of our customers who misunderstood our actions. Although we continue to evaluate technology solutions to piracy, and we continue to increase our civil and criminal enforcement efforts, we expect piracy to be a persistent problem that results in lost revenues and increased expenses.
We do not own all of the software, other technologies and content used in our products and services.
Many of our products are designed to include intellectual property owned by third parties. We believe we have all of the necessary licenses from third parties to use and distribute third party technology and content that we do not own that is used in our current products and services. From time to time we may be required to renegotiate with these third parties or negotiate with new third parties to include their technology or content in our existing products, in new versions of our existing products or in wholly new products. We may not be able to negotiate or renegotiate licenses on reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain the rights necessary to use or continue to use third-party technology or content in our products and services, we may not be able to sell the affected products, which would in turn have a negative impact on our revenue and operating results.
We may unintentionally infringe the intellectual property rights of others, which could expose us to substantial damages or restrict our business operations.
As the number of our products and services increases and their features and content continue to expand, and as we acquire technology through acquisitions or licenses, we may increasingly become subject to infringement claims by third parties. We expect that software products in general will increasingly be subject to these claims as the number of products and competitors increase, the functionality of products overlap and as the patenting of software functionality continues to grow. From time to time, we have received communications from third parties in which the claimant alleges that a product or service we offer infringes the claimants intellectual property rights. Occasionally these communications result in lawsuits. In many of these cases, it is difficult to assess the extent to which the intellectual property right that the claimant asserts is valid or the extent to which we have any material
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exposure. The receipt of a notice alleging infringement may require us to obtain a costly opinion of counsel to prevent an allegation of intentional infringement. Future claims could present an exposure of uncertain magnitude. Existing or future infringement claims or lawsuits against us, whether valid or not, may be time consuming and expensive to defend and be distracting to our developers and management. Intellectual property litigation or claims could force us to do one or more of the following: cease selling, incorporating or using products or services that incorporate the challenged intellectual property; obtain a license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property, which may not be available on commercially favorable terms or at all; or redesign our software products or services, possibly in a manner that reduces their commercial appeal. Any of these actions may cause material harm to our business and financial results.
Our acquisition activity could disrupt our ongoing business and may present risks not contemplated at the time of the transactions.
We have acquired and may continue to acquire companies, products and technologies that complement our strategic direction. For example, over the last three fiscal years we have acquired the stock or assets of several companies. These acquisitions may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including:
Acquisitions are inherently risky, we can not be certain that our previous or future acquisitions will be successful and will not materially adversely affect the conduct, operating results or financial condition of our business. We have generally paid cash for our recent acquisitions. If we issue common stock or other equity related purchase rights as consideration in an acquisition, current shareholders percentage ownership and earnings per share may become diluted.
If we fail to operate our outsourced payroll business effectively our revenue and profitability will be harmed.
Our payroll business handles a significant amount of dollar and transaction volume. Due to the size and volume of transactions that we handle effective processing systems and controls are essential to ensure that transactions are handled appropriately. Despite our efforts, it is possible that we may make errors or that funds may be misappropriated. In addition to any direct damages and fines that any such problems would create, which could be substantial, the loss of customer confidence in our accuracy and controls would seriously harm our business. Our payroll business has grown largely through acquisitions and our systems are comprised of multiple technology platforms that are difficult to scale. We must constantly continue to upgrade our systems and processes to ensure that we process customer data in an accurate, reliable and timely manner. These upgrades must also meet the various regulatory deadlines associated with employer-related payroll activities. Any failure of our systems or processes in critical switch-over times, such as in January when many businesses elect to change payroll service providers, would be detrimental to our business. If we failed to timely deliver any of our payroll products, it could cause our current and prospective customers to choose a competitors product for that years payroll and not to purchase Intuit products in the future. To generate sustained growth in our payroll business we must successfully develop and manage a more proactive inside and field sales operation. If these efforts are not successful our revenue growth and profitability will decline.
Interest income attributable to payroll customer deposits may fluctuate or be eliminated causing our revenue and profitability to decline.
We currently earn revenue from interest earned on customer deposits that we hold pending payment of funds to taxing authorities or to customers employees. If interest rates decline, or there are regulatory changes that diminish the amount of time that we are required or permitted to hold such funds our interest revenue will decline.
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We face a number of risks in our merchant card processing business that could result in a reduction in our revenues and profits.
Our merchant card processing service business is subject to the following risks:
Should any of these risks be realized our business could be harmed and our financial results will suffer.
Increased state tax filing mandates such as the required use of specific technologies could significantly increase our costs.
We are required to comply with a variety of state revenue agency standards in order to successfully operate our tax preparation and electronic filing services. Changes in state-imposed requirements by one or more of the states, including the required use of specific technologies or technology standards, could significantly increase the costs of providing those services to our customers and could prevent us from delivering a quality product to our customers in a timely manner.
We may be unable to attract and retain key personnel.
Much of our future success depends on the continued service and availability of skilled personnel, including members of our executive team, and those in technical, marketing and staff positions. Experienced personnel in the software and services industries are in high demand and competition for their talents is intense, especially in the Silicon Valley and San Diego, California, where the majority of our employees are located. Although we strive to be an employer of choice, we may not be able to continue to successfully attract and retain key personnel which would cause our business to suffer.
If actual product returns exceed returns reserves, or if customer rebates exceed historical amounts, our revenue would be lower.
We ship more desktop software products to our distributors and retailers than we expect them to sell, in order to reduce the risk that distributors or retailers will run out of products. This is particularly true for our Consumer Tax products, which have a short selling season and for which returns occur primarily in our fourth fiscal quarter. Like most software companies, we have historically accepted significant product returns. We establish reserves against revenue for product returns in our financial statements, based on estimated future returns of products. We closely monitor levels of product sales and inventory in the retail channel in an effort to maintain reserves that are adequate to cover expected returns. In the past, returns have not generally exceeded these reserves. However, if we do experience actual returns that significantly exceed reserves, it would result in lower net revenue. For example, if we had increased our fiscal 2004 returns reserves by 1% of non-consignment sales to retailers for QuickBooks, TurboTax and Quicken, our fiscal 2004 total net revenue would have been approximately $4 million lower. In addition, our policy of recognizing revenue from distributors and retailers upon delivery of product for non- consignment sales is predicated upon our ability to reasonably estimate returns. If we do not continue to demonstrate
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our ability to estimate returns then our revenue recognition policy for these types of sales may no longer be appropriate. We also offer customer rebates as part of our selling efforts and establish reserves for payment of rebates. Historically a percentage of customers do not submit requests for their rebates. If a greater number of eligible customers seek rebates than for which we have provided reserves, our margins will be adversely affected. If rebate redemptions for our QuickBooks, TurboTax and Quicken products were to increase by 1%, our annual total net revenue would decrease by approximately $1 million.
Our insurance policies are costly, may be inadequate and potentially expose us to unrecoverable risks.
Insurance availability, coverage terms and pricing continue to vary with market conditions. We endeavor to obtain appropriate insurance coverage for insurable risks that we identify, however, we may fail to correctly anticipate or quantify insurable risks, we may not be able to obtain appropriate insurance coverage, and insurers may not respond as we intend to cover insurable events that may occur. We have observed rapidly changing conditions in the insurance markets relating to nearly all areas of traditional corporate insurance. Such conditions have resulted in higher premium costs, higher policy deductibles, and lower coverage limits. For some risks, because of cost or availability, we do not have insurance coverage. For these reasons, we are retaining a greater portion of insurable risks than we have in the past at relatively greater cost.
If we are required to account for options under our employee stock plans as a compensation expense, it would significantly reduce our net income and earnings per share.
Although we are not currently required to record any compensation expense in connection with option grants to employees that have an exercise price at or above fair market value, it is possible that future accounting pronouncements will require us to treat all employee stock options as a compensation expense. The increased compensation expense would significantly reduce our net income and earnings per share under generally accepted accounting principles.
We are frequently a party to litigation that is costly to defend and consumes the time of our management.
Due to our financial position and the large number of customers that we serve we are often forced to defend litigation. For example we are currently being sued in three actions for claims related to our election to stop supporting certain of our older product offerings. Although we believe that these cases have no merit and we are defending the matters vigorously, defending such matters consumes the time of our management and is expensive for Intuit. Even though we often seek insurance coverage for litigation defense costs, there is no assurance that our defense costs, which can be substantial, will be covered in all cases. In addition, by its nature, litigation is unpredictable and we may not prevail even in cases where we strongly believe a plaintiffs case has no valid claims. If we do not prevail in litigation we may be required to pay substantial monetary damages or alter our business operations. Regardless of the outcome, litigation is expensive and consumes the time of our management and may ultimately reduce our income.
Unanticipated changes in our tax rates could affect our future results.
Our future effective tax rates could be favorably or unfavorably affected by unanticipated changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or by changes in tax laws or their interpretation. In addition, we are subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. There can be no assurance that the outcomes from these continuous examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
Our stock price may be volatile.
Our stock has at times experienced substantial price volatility as a result of variations between our actual and anticipated financial results and as a result of our announcements and those of our competitors. In addition, the stock market has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market price of many technology companies in ways that have been unrelated to the operating performance of these companies. These factors, as well as general economic and political conditions, may materially adversely affect the market price of our stock in the future.
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If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to detect fraud or report our financial results accurately, which could harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.
Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and to detect and prevent fraud. We periodically assess our system of internal controls, and the internal controls of service providers upon which we rely, to review their effectiveness and identify potential areas of improvement. These assessments may conclude that enhancements, modifications or changes to our system of internal controls are necessary. In addition, from time to time we acquire businesses, many of which have limited infrastructure and systems of internal controls. Performing assessments of internal controls, implementing necessary changes, and maintaining an effective internal controls process is expensive and requires considerable management attention, particularly in the case of newly acquired entities. Internal control systems are designed in part upon assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and all such systems, however well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, and not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the system are met. Because of these and other inherent limitations of control systems, there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions, regardless of how remote. If we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls or prevent fraud, we could suffer losses, could be subject to costly litigation, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information and our brand and operating results could be harmed, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.
We must comply with recently enacted legislation known as Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Specifically, we and our independent registered public accounting firm must certify the adequacy of our internal controls over financial reporting at July 31, 2005. Identification of material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting by us or our independent registered public accounting firm could adversely affect our competitive position in our business, especially our outsourced payroll business, and the market price for our common stock.
Business interruptions could adversely affect our future operating results.
Several of our major business operations are subject to interruption by earthquake, fire, power shortages, terrorist attacks and other hostile acts, and other events beyond our control. The majority of our research and development activities, our corporate headquarters, our principal information technology systems, and other critical business operations are located near major seismic faults. We do not carry earthquake insurance for direct quake-related losses. Our operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected in the event of a major earthquake or other natural or man-made disaster.
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Report contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include our statements regarding the following: the assumptions underlying our Critical Accounting Policies, including our estimates regarding product rebate and return reserves; our belief that revenue growth for our products is slowing due to market maturation; our plans to mitigate slowing revenue by developing and introducing new products and services; our belief that our income tax valuation allowance is sufficient; our expectation that we may use cash for future acquisitions of technology and businesses; and our expectation that our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure needs for the next 12 months.
We caution investors that forward-looking statements are only predictions based on our current expectations about future events and are not guarantees of future performance. Our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements due to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. These risks and uncertainties include the following: the impact of intense competition in our business; difficulty in developing and introducing new products and services effectively; failure of customers to adopt our new products as expected; difficulties with suppliers and distribution channels; challenges associated with upgrading and integrating our information systems; unanticipated increases in customer rebate and return rates; significant impairment charges due to past acquisitions; and taxing authorities may challenge our tax positions. In addition, the risks and uncertainties that are discussed in this Item 2 under the caption Risks That Could Affect Future Results may also impact these forward-looking statements. We encourage you to read that section carefully along with the other information provided in this Report and in our other filings with the SEC before deciding to invest in our stock or to maintain or change your investment. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law.
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ITEM 3 QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Short-Term Investment and Funds Held for Payroll Customers Portfolio
We do not hold derivative financial instruments in our portfolio of short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers. Our short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers consist of instruments that meet quality standards consistent with our investment policy. This policy specifies that, except for direct obligations of the United States government, securities issued by agencies of the United States government, and money market or cash management funds, we diversify our holdings by limiting our short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers with any individual issuer.
Interest Rate Risk
Our cash equivalents and our portfolio of short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers are subject to market risk due to changes in interest rates. Interest rate movements affect the interest income we earn on cash equivalents, short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers and the value of those investments. Should interest rates increase by 10% from the levels of October 31, 2004, the value of our short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers would decline by approximately $0.5 million. Should interest rates increase by 100 basis points from the levels of October 31, 2004, the value of our short-term investments and funds held for payroll customers would decline by approximately $3.2 million.
Impact of Foreign Currency Rate Changes
The functional currency of our international operating subsidiaries is the local currency. Assets and liabilities of our foreign subsidiaries are translated at the exchange rate on the balance sheet date. Revenue, costs and expenses are translated at average rates of exchange in effect during the period. We report translation gains and losses as a separate component of stockholders equity. We include net gains and losses resulting from foreign exchange transactions on our statement of operations.
Since we translate foreign currencies (primarily Canadian dollars and British pounds) into U.S dollars for financial reporting purposes, currency fluctuations can have an impact on our financial results. The historical impact of currency fluctuations has generally been immaterial. We believe that our exposure to currency exchange fluctuation risk is not significant primarily because our international subsidiaries invoice customers and satisfy their financial obligations almost exclusively in their local currencies. Due primarily to the effect of the weakening U.S. dollar on intercompany balances with our Canadian subsidiary, we recorded foreign currency exchange gains of $5.4 million in fiscal 2003 and $3.1 million in fiscal 2004. In the third quarter of fiscal 2004, we converted a significant portion of our Canadian intercompany balances to long-term investments in that subsidiary, which reduced our exposure to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. We recorded a foreign currency exchange gain of $0.4 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2005. Although the impact of currency fluctuations on our financial results has generally been immaterial in the past and we believe that for the reasons cited above currency fluctuations will not be significant in the future, there can be no guarantee that the impact of currency fluctuations will not be material in the future. As of October 31, 2004 we did not engage in foreign currency hedging activities.
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ITEM 4 CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
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PART II
ITEM 1 LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
On or about March 19, 2004, plaintiff Anthony Flannery, on his behalf and on behalf of a class of persons allegedly similarly situated, filed a complaint against Intuit in Santa Clara Superior Court, alleging that Intuits retirement of certain services and live technical support associated with its Quicken 1998, Quicken 1999 and Quicken 2000 products constituted a breach of express and implied warranties and violated sections 17200 and 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, as well as the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. The complaint seeks certification as a class action, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, disgorgement of profits, restitution, injunctive relief and attorneys fees from Intuit.
On or about April 21, 2004, plaintiff Daniel Mason, on his behalf and on behalf of a class of persons allegedly similarly situated, filed a complaint against Intuit in Santa Clara Superior Court making allegations virtually identical to those of Anthony Flannery. On July 14, 2004, the Court consolidated the two cases pursuant to stipulation of the parties.
On or about July 13, 2004, plaintiff filed a First Amended Complaint that added Ental Precision Machining, Inc., as plaintiff; plaintiffs counsel has also dismissed without prejudice all claims on behalf of Cynthia Belotti. On October 8, 2004, Intuit responded to plaintiffs First Amended Complaint by filing demurrers. By Order dated November 12, 2004, the Court granted the demurrers and dismissed all counts of the First Amended Complaint, holding that plaintiff failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court allowed plaintiff until December 10,
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2004 to file a Second Amended Complaint and counsel for the plaintiff has indicated an intent to make such a filing. If plaintiff files a Second Amended Complaint, Intuit will defend the litigation vigorously.
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ITEM 2 UNREGISTERED SALES OF EQUITY SECURITIES AND USE OF PROCEEDS
PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES BY THE ISSUER AND AFFILIATED PURCHASERS
Stock repurchase activity during the three months ended October 31, 2004 was as follows:
Notes:
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ITEM 5 OTHER INFORMATION
ADOPTION OF INTUIT INC. 2005 EQUITY INCENTIVE PLAN
Intuits stockholders approved the adoption of the Intuit Inc. 2005 Equity Incentive Plan at Intuits Annual Meeting of Stockholders held on December 9, 2004. The 2005 Plan became effective upon stockholder approval. It replaces Intuits 2002 Equity Incentive Plan, 1998 Plan for Mergers & Acquisitions (a non-stockholder approved plan) and 1996 Directors Stock Option Plan, each of which terminated when the 2005 Plan was approved by stockholders.
The 2005 Plan reserves 6,500,000 shares of Intuits Common Stock for equity awards granted under it. The 2005 Plan limits the maximum number of shares that may be issued as discount equity awards to 2,000,000 over the life of the 2005 Plan. The 2005 Plan has a two year term. This means that Intuit may grant equity awards under it until December 9, 2006. The 2005 Plan prohibits Intuit from repricing equity awards without first going to stockholders for approval.
Employees, officers, directors, independent contractors, consultants and advisors of Intuit and its majority-owned subsidiaries are eligible to receive awards under the 2005 Plan. The Compensation and Organizational Development Committee determines which eligible individuals receive awards and the terms and conditions of the awards and may delegate its authority to grant awards. The Compensation Committee has delegated the authority to grant certain options to the Chief Executive Officer and certain other officers. Individuals who are granted awards are called participants.
Intuit may grant five types of awards under the 2005 Plan stock options (both incentive and nonqualified), stock appreciation rights (settled in cash or stock), restricted stock awards, restricted stock units and stock bonuses.
Intuit may grant both incentive and nonqualified stock options under the 2005 Plan. Intuit may grant nonqualified stock options (called NQSOs) to any individual eligible to participate in the 2005 Plan. Intuit may grant incentive stock options (called ISOs) only to employees of Intuit or its majority-owned subsidiaries. Intuit almost exclusively grants NQSOs with exercise prices that are no less than the fair market value of Intuits Common Stock at the time of grant. The participant pays Intuit the exercise price when she or he exercises the option. The 2005 Plan permits several payment methods in addition to cash. It allows a participant to use a broker to exercise via a same-day-sale transaction.
The options Intuit has granted become exercisable as they vest. Generally, options vest over three years. If an employee who has been actively employed at Intuit for one year or more dies or becomes totally disabled, his or her option will become fully vested.
Intuit may grant stock appreciation rights (called SARs) to any individual eligible to participate in the 2005 Plan. Like stock options, the value to employees of an SAR is the difference between the trading price of Intuit stock and the exercise price. Unlike options under which the participant pays the exercise price to receive the shares, on exercise of a SAR, the participant receives only the difference between the exercise price and the trading price of the stock in stock or in cash.
Intuit may grant restricted stock units (called RSUs) to any individual eligible to participate in the 2005 Plan. Intuit may issue stock or cash on settlement of an RSU. This stock or cash is issued only if the RSU vests. Intuit may grant RSU awards that allow an employee to defer issuance of the shares or cash to a date after vesting.
Restricted stock awards allow participants to purchase shares of stock from Intuit. Intuit may impose vesting restrictions on the shares purchased that lapse over time or as certain performance goals are met.
Stock bonus awards allow participants to receive shares either as compensation for past services to Intuit or if certain performance goals are met. Intuit can pay stock bonus awards in shares or cash.
The 2005 Plan contains two provisions that enable it to meet the performance-based exception to the $1,000,000 deductibility limits on compensation under Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code. First, no more than 3,000,000 shares may be made subject to awards granted to an individual in the year of his or her hire. Second, no
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more than 2,000,000 shares may be made subject to awards granted to any individual in any other year. In addition, the Compensation Committee members who may make awards to officer employees are all outside directors within the meaning of Section 162(m).
If Intuit were acquired and the acquiring corporation did not assume or replace the awards granted under the 2005 Plan, all outstanding awards would become fully vested and would terminate at the time the acquisition closed. If the acquiring corporation assumed the awards and then terminated the employment of an individual holding an option granted under the 2005 Plan within one year following the acquisition, the employee would accelerate in one year of vesting. If Intuit were to liquidate or dissolve, all outstanding options would become fully vested and would then terminate at the time of the dissolution or liquidation.
The Board or the Compensation Committee may terminate or amend the 2005 Plan. Neither the Board nor the Compensation Committee may amend the 2005 Plan in a manner requiring stockholder approval under the Internal Revenue Code or the Securities Exchange Act without first obtaining stockholder approval. Outstanding awards cannot be amended without the participants consent.
AUTOMATIC STOCK OPTION GRANTS TO NON-EMPLOYEE DIRECTORS UNDER 2005 EQUITYINCENTIVE PLAN
On December 9, 2004, the date Intuits stockholders approved the 2005 Equity Incentive Plan, Intuit automatically granted three compensatory stock options pursuant to Section 10 of the Plan entitled Automatic Grants to Non-Employee Directors. In accordance with the non-discretionary grant formula set forth in Section 10.3 of the Plan, the following members of Intuits Board of Directors each received a stock option grant for 15,000 shares: Christopher Brody, L. John Doerr and Michael Hallman. In accordance with Section 10.7(b) of the Plan, which sets forth the non-discretionary vesting schedule for these grants, the options become exercisable as they vest over two years, as to 50% of the shares on December 9, 2005, the first anniversary of the date of grant and as to an additional 4.1666% of the shares each month thereafter, so long as the non-employee director continuously remains a director or consultant of Intuit. The exercise price per share of the options is the closing price of Intuits common stock on the NASDAQ National Market on the December 9, 2004 date of grant.
2005 EXECUTIVE DEFERRED COMPENSATION PLAN
Intuit Inc.s Compensation and Organizational Development Committee adopted the 2005 Executive Deferred Compensation Plan (the Plan) on December 7, 2004. The Plan is effective January 1, 2005.
The Plan is an unfunded plan maintained primarily to provide deferred compensation benefits for a select group of management or highly compensated employees, within the meaning of Sections 201, 301 and 401 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The Plan is intended to comply with Internal Revenue Code Section 409A and any regulatory or other guidance issued under that section. At the time Intuit adopted the Plan, the Department of Treasury had not yet issued regulations under Section 409A. Once such guidance is issued, the Plan provides that Intuit will conform it to the requirements of Section 409A.
U.S. based officers and director level employees with annual targeted cash compensation of at least $140,000 are eligible to participate in the Plan. The Plan allows these eligible executives to defer up to 50% of their base salary and up to 100% of their bonus and commissions. The Plan allows Intuit to make discretionary employer contributions on behalf of an eligible executive. Intuit may subject these discretionary employer contributions to a vesting schedule.
An eligible executive may make a deferral election for compensation that would otherwise be payable during a subsequent calendar year by filing a participation agreement on or before a date established by Intuit. This date must be before the end of the calendar year that precedes the calendar year in which compensation would otherwise be paid. The first deferral elections permitted under the Plan are those made in calendar 2004 for compensation that would otherwise be payable in calendar year 2005. Executives who become eligible for the Plan during a calendar year in which the compensation would otherwise be payable will have 30 days in which to file a participation agreement for that calendar year. The participation agreement will be effective only with regard to compensation for services performed after Intuit receives the participation agreement.
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A participant will be fully vested in his deferral account. Deferrals will be part of Intuits general assets and will generally be informally funded in Intuit owned life insurance policies. They may be placed in a grantor trust established by Intuit, but all trust assets remain general assets of Intuit and are subject to the claims of Intuits creditors.
Payments from the Plan will be made in accordance with Section 409A. To that end, distributions will be made pursuant to the distribution election made by the eligible executive at the time he makes his deferral election. The individual may elect an in-service withdrawal in one lump sum or annual payments over four years, with a payment commencement date at least two years from the date of the deferral. The individual may elect a retirement withdrawal which would provide for payment in annual installments over two, five or ten years. Retirement is defined as age 55 with five years of service. The individual may elect a termination withdrawal. Participants with less than five years of service or an account of under $20,000 will have their accounts distributed in a lump sum. Participants with five or more years of service will have their accounts distributed in accordance with their termination election in a lump sum or in annual installments over two or five years. Distributions following termination of employment may begin no earlier than six months following the individuals termination date.
The Plan does not permit a participant to change the date payments will be made, unless the participant has an unforeseeable emergency. The Employee Benefits Administrative Committee of Intuit is the committee that administers the Plan. If the Committee determines that the participant has had an unforeseeable emergency, as defined in accordance with Section 409As requirements, the participant may receive a lump sum distribution limited to the amount needed to satisfy the unforeseeable emergency.
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ITEM 6 EXHIBITS AND REPORTS ON FORM 8-K
We have filed the following exhibits as part of this report:
Report(s) on Form 8-K filed during the first quarter of fiscal 2005:
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
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EXHIBIT INDEX
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