Ask Jeeves About To Be Bought By Interactivecorp Options

[storyspinner]

Well I just read on the NY Times site that InterActiveCorp is about to by Ask Jeeves. IAC is the parent company of Expedia, TicketMaster, Match.com and *whispers* HSN.

I wonder how this is going to affect Ask Jeeves seemingly 'cool rep' as the "alternative" to the big 3. I've always like Ask ... but reading about how Barry Diller strives to always be the top in his market, I wonder how it will affect Ask.

anyway... here's the link to the article:
Ask Jeeves to be bought for $2 Billion by InterActiveCorp.

This post has been edited by searchrank: Mar 21 2005, 09:43 AM

[Jill]

Hmm...interesting, thanks for the info, Liana!

[Randy]

Interesting.

Isn't Teoma still owned by Ask? And will all of the Ask properties be part of the sale?

My take on Barry Diller is the same a Liana's. It certainly makes me wonder if we're going to see a Big Four instead of a Big Three in search.

[sweepthelegnate]

I wonder if this will slow down the pace of all those ask jeeves commercials or if they'll start churning out more...

[storyspinner]

Isn't Teoma still owned by Ask?  And will all of the Ask properties be part of the sale?

I believe it including all AJ's "properties" including the newly acquired Bloglines.

My first thought (besides what i posted above) was like everyone else's... that Diller's lining up these domain buys to start cashing in on the Search Advertising but I'm beginning to think he's going to try and position AJ a little differently.

With this forthcoming advent of "Local Search" IAC acquiring AJ makes sense, it can truly utilize a lot of its internet properties in that arena - example giving hotel listings from hotels.com .... mortgage listing from lendingtree.com and so on. 4 out of the 5 speakers at the Search Convergence session said was where the "next big thing" was happening in "LOCAL" Search.... so this could be a wise investment for Diller's empire.

The only "jewel" IAC is missing is the mapping technology that is really making Google's local searches really stand out at this point. I'm thinking before year's end Diller's going to buy up some technology company that specializes in mapping or another website ... perhaps mapquest (not sure if that's owned by someone yet or not) or some similar site.

Just my little overview at the moment... now that I've had a little more time to formulate some thoughts on this.

*edited cuz I'm a spazz and my fingers aren't fast enough for my brain these days

This post has been edited by storyspinner: Mar 21 2005, 03:04 PM

[Renagade Master]

BBC also have a nice article: BBC News

So AJ was bought by the owner of Expedia and Match.com, what better way of promoting your sites than to buy a search engine! Great move.

Now if only I could buy Google and place my sites first.....

[Alan Perkins]

So AJ was bought by the owner of Expedia and Match.com, what better way of promoting your sites than to buy a search engine! Great move.

According to the WSJ article (subscription required):

"IAC sites get plenty of traffic. The issue is getting Ask Jeeves traffic," Mr. Diller, IAC's chief executive, said in an interview. Taken together, IAC sites are among the biggest buyers of search-related advertisements. Mr. Diller said he didn't expect to reduce IAC's marketing spending as a result of the deal.

There are some more interesting quotes in that article, but as it's subscription only I better not quote too many. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[SearchRank]

I just hope that they will update their index more frequently now. Man, I think the current one is about six months old. Makes it challenging for SEO if they will not update their index reflecting any changes or improvements one makes to the site. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/tumbleweed.gif)

[don1]

There is a short article on the front page of Alexa about this sale and the Yahoo purchase of Flickr.

[Paul J]

This might have been mentioned in the WSJ article. It looks like they're planning to place an Ask search bar on the IAC sites.

Article

Diller plans to grow Ask Jeeves by placing a search bar on Web pages of IAC’s other sites such as the online travel agency Expedia, Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, CitySearch, and Match.com.

[storyspinner]

Don't have a link to the story I read this morning, but apparently a shareholder of AskJeeves is suing to halt the IAC / AJ sale, stating that IAC is paying a significantly lower price per share than the actual "true" value of AJ.

I think it was back in sep/oct when AJ's stock was around $44, now it's around $22 .... some of the financial "experts" are saying that AJ could realistically get 20-25% more than the current $22 a share value that IAC has just tired to ink with them.

Should this suit actually take wings and fly through the SEC, there just might be a bidding war on for AJ .... just depends on if that shareholder can keep the lawsuit alive.


...interesting stuff!

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


*edited because I found the story!
here's the link to the story about the lawsuit :Inside Bay Area:Ask Jeeves faces lawsuit

This post has been edited by storyspinner: Mar 24 2005, 01:24 PM

[Karl Ribas]

Do you think that they will retire Jeeves? Or maybe give him a different occupation, rather than a butler? I can totally see Jeeves as a gardener or even a baker.