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To: AugustWest who wrote (22)	3/3/1999 3:45:00 PM
From: AugustWest	Respond to of 103

Intuit Sues Checkfree In Contract Dispute 3-3-99 SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - Personal finance software giant Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU - news) said Wednesday it is filing a lawsuit against Checkfree Corp., a provider of back office payment services in which it is a major shareholder, for allegedly violating a contract agreement. Intuit said it was filing its complaint in California's Santa Clara County Superior Court and is ''seeking damages and injunctive relief against Checkfree.'' Intuit, which holds 19.9 percent of Checkfree's stock, would not elaborate on its statement, but cited a clause barring Checkfree from offering ''products of its own in certain distribution channels.'' Checkfree, the leader in electronic bill-paying and presentment services, has been selling the service direct to competitors of Intuit, including Yahoo! Inc., analysts said. Checkfree would not comment on the lawsuit, either. Its stock fell $3.125 to $35.625 on Nasdaq in reaction to the legal dispute. ''This throws a monkey wrench into things for Checkfree,'' said Gary Craft, BancBoston Robertson Stephens e-commerce analyst. Checkfree, a provider of electronic billing services, has been expanding rapidly into Web services, where there is surging demand for back office services to support e-commerce related applications. ''They've stepped up their efforts to enhance value by developing independent relationships with other Web services like Yahoo -- but now they're being boxed in by Intuit,'' said Craft. The Checkfree and Intuit contractual dispute stems from an exclusive agreement the companies made a year ago in which Checkfree handles bill presentment service for Intuit's Quicken.com site. Craft said the companies might still find a way to settle their dispute, since ''Intuit owns a big chunk of Checkfree an it doesn't want to shoot itself in the foot.'' Intuit has held its stake since it swapped its own bill payments unit with Checkfree for stock more than two years ago. Since that time the two have worked on a number of ventures as partners. dailynews.yahoo.com