Google has acquired price comparison website BeatThatQuote for £37.7m.
The British price comparison site that specialises in personal finance products was launched in February 2005 by serial entrepreneur John Paleomylites who owns 90% of the company.
BeatThatQuote reportedly generated £8.5m in turnover, but a £2m loss in the year ended 31 January 2010.
In 2007, Nielsen Online had ranked BeatThatQuote.com as the fastest growing UK website. It had around 2.5 million unique visitors per month in June 2008.
For Google, the acquisition is a way to expand its comparision services in the UK. It already has a similar service called Comparison Ads in the US and has some limited offerings in the UK.
Paleomylites said that by combining BeatThatQuote’s expertise in UK financial products with Google’s technology, innovation in this field will be accelerated.
Paleomylites said both companies will work "to create new tools making it easier for consumers to choose the right financial products."
In 2000, Paleomylites sold his Internet security company JCP to Sun Microsystems for £40m.
