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Ask Jeeves Bought for $2 billion

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the jeeves-let-me-axe-u-sumthin dept.

RMX writes "CNet's reporting that Ask Jeeves is being bought by InterActive Corp for $2 billion. Ask Jeeves (ask.com, excite.com, iwon.com) and InterActive Corp (expedia, ticketmaster, match.com, citysearch). This marks a nice comeback for Ask Jeeves, whose stock was quite a roller coaster ride during the 2000-2003 .com crash. Are the good times back?"

14 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Did anyone by OAB_X · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Really ever use ask jeeves? I mean, I used it once or twice several years ago, but is it really that popular to be bought for 2 billion? I cant think of anyone who uses it consistently, or even rarely.

    1. Re:Did anyone by yelvington · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not just about AskJeeves, it's about the entire stable of sites/brands/technologies that it owns: Teoma (search technology), Excite, iWon, MyWay and Bloglines. In that collection, there's actually more usage outside the Ask brand that inside it. Here's a recent snapshot.

    2. Re:Did anyone by kesuki · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I use ask.com anytime google pulls up too many sites to sift through.. the Ask engine is designed to anylize english sentances, and return the best matches that are relevant to an ENTIRE sentance. Google is good, but it's just a really fast keyword search tool. keywords will often times return too many results, which is why google has Page Rank technology, which extended the life and value of keyword searching... but it's still a primative form of searching... it's like going to a card catalog of the entire knowledge of the human existance and asking for everything with the term 'free money' in it... Asking google for 'free money' returns a ton of various sites, in order of popularity, Ask.com when asked "how can i earn free money?" after about 20 advertised links (which are clearly marked) it lists ONLY free money websites. no links to books, no links to gambling sites... nothing but what you were looking for..
      Ask.com has the next generation of search engine technology, if you combined ask.com's technology with page ranking technology, you'd have the best possible search technology.

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  2. The Poster Askes by Kushy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are the good times back?

    Yes they are just not for the USA. Its a good time for India and China, with cheap ass CEO's CFO's CTO's, all outsourcing.

    I really do not see any 'good times' ahead for IT ppl in the US.

    --
    "The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein," - Joe Theisman
    1. Re:The Poster Askes by CSMastermind · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well I must admit that outsourcing has become a problem but the problem lays in how we're dealing with it as well. Now I'll be the first to admit that I hate the large multi-billion dollar transnational corperations. I don't have a hard time believing that they're corrupt and just plain evil but I also must see the fact that there's a way around this.

      On a whole if your IT job was outsourced than it was proablly not a very unique or important job. The 1990s saw a rise in a lot of people getting trained and certified in computers so they could hop on the bandwagon and get a low level IT job, now that the economy is down they're finding their jobs being outsourced.

      If you don't want your job outsourced, then gain a valubale skill so that they can't afford to outsource you, work harder, smarter, and in general better than any overseas empolyee that they can find.

    2. Re:The Poster Askes by CSMastermind · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Well I'm not going to disagree that the US's current economic plan makes absolutly no sense but the majority American debt is owed to other Americans. The national debt you're referring to comes mostly from the US government buying on credit from US corperations.

      As for people outsourcing to us, you have to realize that while the dollar is growing weaker, this does in many ways repersent a positive injection into our economy because it helps balance the trade deficit. The reason people won't outsource to here is because even in our current state America repersents a place of inovation and invent simply unmatched in many parts of the world. As long as the new technology is here first we shouldn't have a problem.

  3. I'd say it's a good thing by CSMastermind · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think this represents a good thing for Ask Jeeves. I remember 5 years or so ago in school when we had to take a class on internet basics and we learned about screach engines. Ask Jeeves was my faviorite because it was one of the few that made sense. But over time I learned about Google and www.alltheweb.com, and I stopped using Ask because I found it's layout overbearing and hard to navigate. Ask also suffered from a poor marketing stragity. I think that if they can reorganize the company then it will be a very positive thing.

  4. Bloglines too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ask Jeeves, Inc. also owns Bloglines.

    Did InterActive own any blog type services prior to this acquisition?

  5. Summary by northcat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ask Jeeves ( ask.com, excite.com , iwon.com ) and InterActive Corp ( expedia, ticketmaster, match.com, citysearch).

    That's not even a sentence.

  6. Sounds about right... by magicclams · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given that the company made about $86 million last year, the selling price ($1.9 billion) represents a price to earnings ratio of ~22...a bit on the high side, but not out of line with a company whose earnings more than doubled last year. Given that this is a profitable survivor acquiring another profitable survivor, I don't think this represents a slide back into the (good? bad?) old days of multi-billion dollar valuations for stocks that barely have a business plan. As for that profitability, it may seem odd to those of us who take it for granted that a query like "prescription drugs canada" makes more sense than "Where can I buy prescription drugs in Canada?", but we're tech geeks. Ask around..."Jeeves" is the portal of choice for the techno-phobic middle-aged and elderly, who typically have a much higher money-to-brains ratio than computer geeks.

    1. Re:Sounds about right... by DeadSea · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You say that people want to ask questions rather than put in search terms. There are a few things wrong with that:

      1. People hate typing. I would expect more people to enter "prescpt drugs CA" than "Where can I buy prescription drugs in Canada"
      2. Entering "Where can I buy prescription drugs in Canada" into google returns very relevent results. As a user, you don't need to know that google ignores the words "where", "can", "I", and "in".

      So maybe there is a place in the market for a search engine front end that specifically says "type in a question". But I really doubt that many people want to type that much. I certainly doubt that it should be based an shoddy results that Ask Jeeves seems to give.

      --
      Online Currency Converter with Current Exchange Rates

  7. Traffic costs are rising by adrianbye · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With the costs/value of traffic rising, sites that have a lot of traffic are being bought. Their value should increase significantly over the next few years. This is also why about.com was bought recently.

  8. Wrong in Everything ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "The majority American debt is owed to other Americans. "

    Wrong :

    http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/faq.html

    "The national debt you're referring to comes mostly from the US government buying on credit from US corperations. "

    WRONG !

    He is talking about the current federal budget deficit , the Nationnal debt is closer to 7.8 Trillion.

    " this does in many ways repersent a positive injection into our economy because it helps balance the trade deficit. "

    Wrong !

    To balance the trade deficit you would have to sale to other country as much as you buy.And to really balance it you would have to sale more to other in other to pay your huge debts.

    " The reason people won't outsource to here is because even in our current state America repersents a place of inovation and invent simply unmatched in many parts of the world."

    Wrong !

    The reason is higher salary cost , no point in giving 1 dollar for 2 mins of US worker pay when for that amount you can have 30 Chinese or Hindi for 4 hour.

    The Etats-Unians are not innovator the US aint a place of innovation , most innovation come from outside the US.

    " As long as the new technology is here first we shouldn't have a problem. "

    Reality check :

    Nothing as came out of US since the 70's ...

    The world is doing everything in its power to keep your market of extreme spender happy , but there are limits to insanity for the sake of keeping a market alive , With the strong Euro , and soon the Chinese dollars , you will see a shift into global position for dropping your pathetic Country.

    welcome to a new era

  9. Great For Noobs... by theblueprint · · Score: 2, Insightful
    My best friend just bought a PC. He has difficulty with computers in general (we're still working on importing songs to iTunes).

    I continously tell him to "google" something when he has a question, but his seach engine skills need work. Yesterday his female roommate told him to "ask jeeves"...(what is baklava?). For whatever reason, Jeeves worked out for him, and he proceeded to get himself answers to all the questions he's had in a while.

    I think because it encourages the user to literally ask a question, noobs feel more confident that they'll get the results they want. For them,it's easier to ask jeeves "What is baklava?" than to google "baklava definion".

    --
    "from the bricks to the booth...I predict the future like Cleo the psychic..."