Microsoft Money gets the heave-ho

Microsoft plans to stop selling Microsoft Money, its personal finance program.

Although Microsoft will stop selling the product at the end of June, it plans to support it through January 2011.

After that point, people can continue to use the product but they will no longer be able to get automated data feeds from their banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers.

Last year, Microsoft stopped selling Money at retail stores, offering it only by internet download. The company also said it would stop doing annual updates but said at the time it planned to continue offering the product.

A director in Microsoft's Online Business Services unit, Adam Sohn, said the company now plans to halt sales of the product at the end of the month. A variety of factors led the company to change course.

Sohn said: "It's a mix of what's going on in the market, what makes sense for long-term for us and a little bit on consumer behaviour."

The discontinuation of Money is one of the more high-profile product cuts made in the wake of the company's cost-cutting efforts, which began in January. Microsoft said in March it was largely discontinuing its Encarta encyclopedia and has also scrapped its Windows OneCare antivirus product.

Sohn said the company plans to continue selling Money through to the end of the month and hasn't made a plan to offer refunds to recent buyers of the product. Those who have recently bought the product, he said, still have a good while to get the value from it. (Microsoft will support Money slightly longer for those who have recently bought the product, per its licensing terms).

Plus, he said, some people will continue to use it even after the automatic services stop. At that point, consumers will have to manually download information from their banks and other service providers. "After Jan 31, 2011, the product will work," he said. "It just won't have the rich-services back end."

Although Microsoft will support current partners pushing data to Money users, it won't be adding any new institutions. It will, however, let current partners rebrand themselves.

The software maker also plans to continue its MSN Money website, although Sohn said the company opted not to try to recreate the full Money program on the web.

Microsoft posted this notice on its website: "With banks, brokerage firms and websites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. "We would like to thank the many dedicated users who have been enthusiastic supporters of Microsoft Money over the years, as well as our partner financial institutions who helped pioneer a digital vision of financial management."

Original article: Microsoft to discontinue MS Money from CNET News.com