R.I.P – Microsoft Office Accounting

Microsoft once tried to buy Intuit in the 1990′s but was unsuccessful.  Then they came out with a product to compete directly with QuickBooks.  Today they announced that they are discontinuing that product.  Here is a blurb from their website:

Microsoft Office Accounting will no longer be distributed after November 16, 2009.

We would like to thank the many dedicated users and partners who have been enthusiastic supporters of Office Accounting over the years

I wish I could say that I am surprised by this, but I’m really not at all.  In my 12 years of working in public accounting, working directly with small businesses I have never once encountered a business that used the Microsoft accounting products.  Intuit owns this space and it will take a company more focused than Microsoft to unseat it as the King of small business accounting software.