Reckon takes a loss after selling strategic stake in Melbourne IT

Software company Reckon has sold its stake in Melbourne IT after it realised a partnership between the two entities wasn’t proceeding the way it had been originally foreseen, resulting in a net loss for the company of around $600,000.

This comes just weeks after Reckon terminated an agreement with American software supplier Intuit, the company behind the Quikbooks range of accounting software, after the local business felt Intuit’s online strategy was diverging too much from its own.

It also comes just days after it took a 30% stake in Sydney start-up Connect2Field.

Reckon chief executive Clive Rabie confirmed with SmartCompany this morning the company had sold its 4.97% share in Melbourne IT, after buying the stock for $5.64 million. It was sold for $4.99 million.

However, Rabie says he’s not upset by the loss.

“We’re not share traders. We didn’t consider whether the share price would go up or down. It’s just sold now and that’s the price.”

The shares were sold due to a divergence in the way Reckon and Melbourne IT were navigating a product partnership. The companies originally sought an alliance, but Rabie says the two companies have differed in their respective strategies.

“We felt that if we were going to have the alliance we anticipated, we wanted to have a strategic stake. We haven’t changed our mind, but the way the partnership was working was different than anticipated.”

This comes just weeks after Reckon terminated an agreement with American firm Intuit, a decision which will affect the way Reckon can use certain brands and product names.

A month afterwards, Rabie says he still feels good about the decision.

“We’ve been working towards those discussions with Intuit over many years, and it’s not like much will happen until next year anyway.”

 “We have 700 days where we carry on with our branding, and then through our process we’ll be changing our brand as well.”