Intuit's new mantra: free

On its face, the fiscal fourth quarter was lackluster for Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU). There was a net loss of $61.9 million, or $0.19 per share. Revenues were up 10.5% to $478.2 million.

But, then again, this is a seasonly slow quarter. Plus, the guidance made up for things. That is, Intuit sees next quarter's revenues at $480 million to $492 million, with a net loss of $0.11 to $0.14 per share.

Actually, Intuit is in the midst of a major transition – from shrink-wrap software to on-demand offerings. In fact, the company is pushing aggressively into free products (which are monetized by add-ons and premium upgrades). For example, Intuit plans to launch FinanceWorks, which is a powerful web-based financial planning platform. The goal is to migrate users to services like bill payment and online banking.

Intuit is also getting traction with its recent acquisitions, such as with ECHO and Homestead. In fact, with Homestead, there's a big opportunity to cross-sell websites to Intuit's four million QuickBooks user base.

For the long haul, Intuit wants to invest more resources into two main categories: global and healthcare. Actually, the company is looking to Asia for growth opportunities.

And, so far in today's trading, Intuit's shares are up 4.7% to $31.46.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.