Intuit has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Web 1.0 survivor and website provider Homestead Technologies for $170 million.
Menlo Park base Homestead launched in 1998 as a free web site host targeted at small businesses that competed with the then wildly popular Geocities.
Intuit, best known as the creators of the Quicken financial software package said that the acquisition would allow the company to offer web site creation and ecommerce solutions to small businesses. Intuit has a checkered history online, with its business directory site Zipingo closing in August. Intuit currently has a partnership with Google that sees Google services embedded in Intuit products.
The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2008.