MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Intuit has agreed to purchase Mint.com, a Web-based company that was described by Intuit CEO Brad Smith earlier this year as having revitalized the personal finance software market. Smith, who praised Mint highly in an analyst conference call, followed through and Intuit will pay about $170 million in cash to buy the privately held company, which is also based in Mountain View. Mint.com was founded by CEO Aaron Patzer, who will become general manager of Intuit's Personal Finance group.

CHICAGO - PDI Global's Social Media Start package bundles a variety of services to help firms develop plans for getting the most from blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and to establish policies for firm members.

Outright.com, a free online bookkeeping site, is available to eBay’s online sellers through the Selling Manager Applications (SM Apps) platform. Outlook plans paid options and fee-based services, but says the core service for self-employed individuals will remain free. The company's Web site notes the product remains free during the Beta period.

Avalara, which makes Web-based sales-and-use applications has incorporated sales tax rate changes for 24 taxing jurisdictions in nine states that were implemented in August. The Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based company also updated jurisdictional boundary information in five states. It also added five new taxability rules to its database, covering such items as sales tax caps in Alaska, Arizona, and Florida, hosted software in Michigan, a change in rates on candy, soft drinks, and personal hygiene products in Illinois, a general sales tax holiday in West Virginia, and a sales tax holiday on firearms in Louisiana.