Media and Internet company IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)’s Ask.com has agreed to acquire About Group from New York Times for $300m in cash.
IAC has won the deal outbidding an earlier $270m offer from Answers and the acquisition is expected to be completed in the next several weeks.
About.com is a content and reference libraries on the Internet, offering content across 90,000 topics that helps users find answers for their daily needs.
IAC CEO Greg Blatt said About.com’s content will differentiate and increase the authority of Ask.com’s applications, while Ask’s expertise in search technology and user experience will improve the discoverability of existing content on About.com.
"The complementary nature of these two businesses will provide significant synergies going forward, and thus we expect that About.com will generate more profit as a part of Ask.com and IAC than it has been able to over the last few years," Blatt said.
Following the acquisition, About Group will join IAC’s Search and Applications reporting segment, joining Ask.com, Dictionary.com, Mindspark, nRelate, and Pronto. About’s CEO Darline Jean will report to Ask.com CEO Doug Leeds after the merger.
