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IAC/InterActiveCorp. aquires Ask Jeeves

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Thu, 03/24/2005 - 00:12 — Christoph C. Cemper

On Mar. 21 the media mogul announced a much cheaper — and savvier — move. Pending shareholder approval, IAC will purchase fifth-ranked search company Ask Jeeves (ASKJ ) for $1.85 billion in stock

Acquiring the search company will give IAC/InterActiveCorp. a chance to become a top player in the promising local search market.

Barry Diller's company , IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI ), tried buying 60% of search site Lycos near the peak of the Internet boom in 1999 for $4 billion — a deal Lycos investors thought was too cheap. Lycos sold to Terra Networks for $12.5 billion a year later… :-) well done Lycos!

Therefore the IAC folks are quite late on the bus… but the Ask Jeeves acquisition is not only a bargain compared to the Lycos offer but also when compared to recent Internet acquisitions. New York Times (NYT ) recently paid 23 times earnings for About.com, and Dow Jones & Co. (DJ ) paid 19 times earnings for CBS MarketWatch.

more via Diller's Search Finds Ask Jeeves

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