NEW YORK–Intuit, the owner of TurboTax, is buying Credit Karma in a $7-billion deal analysts say is all about leveraging a wealth of consumer financial data. Credit Karma offers a popular free credit-score checks solution.
“There is a potentially significant business opportunity for Intuit if it completes a deal,” wrote the New York Times. “For example, Intuit could try to match all the tax data its TurboTax customers provide with the credit-scoring data that Credit Karma holds. That could let Intuit serve up better customer prospects to credit card issuers — and eventually let Intuit charge lenders more for access to its hoard of data.”
‘Facebook for Financial Services’
Sheel Mohnot, a venture capitalist who focuses on fintech start-ups, told the Times the combined company could become a sort of Facebook for financial services.
“They would have all of this rich information, and they would basically be an ad network,” Mohnot told the Times. “You’re almost forced to advertise with them.”
But the Times added one word of caution, noting the grip the company could have on Americans’ financial data could give regulators reason to scrutinize the deal.