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IAC Buys AskJeeves
Search engine provider AskJeeves, Inc is to be acquired by InterActiveCorp (IAC) Inc for $1.8 billion. Online analyst comScore Media Metrix says the overlap between the very substantial audience of the two companies is limited, making the acquisition a good fit.
Last month, InterActiveCorp had a total of 44.3m unique US visitors while Ask Jeeves had a similar 42.1m - but the 'unduplicated total' is a massive 71.2m according to comScore.
Ask Jeeves currently has a 5.1% share of total US search submissions. The biggest players are Google sites with 35.1%, Yahoo! sites with 31.8% and MSN-Microsoft Sites with 16.0%. Time Warner Network is fourth with 9.6%. Although many web users have a first choice of search engine, 65% of users use 2 or more in a typical month (Source: comScore qSearch).
According to Dan Hess, Senior VP of comScore Networks, 'The combination creates intriguing growth opportunities, given that there is relatively little overlap between the IAC and Ask Jeeves audiences. Having said that, it's no secret that there's fierce competition in search, and most major players are working to further extend their own brands into industries that have been IAC strongholds'.
AskJeeves is the proud owner of one of the web's best URLs, www.ask.com
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