Ask Jeeves Bought for $2 billion

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?"

Comments

Did anyone

[OAB_X]

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.

Re:Did anyone

[yelvington]

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.

The Poster Askes

[Kushy]

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.

Re:The Poster Askes

[CSMastermind]

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.

I'd say it's a good thing

[CSMastermind]

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.

Bloglines too

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask Jeeves, Inc. also owns Bloglines.

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

Sounds about right...

[magicclams]

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.

Traffic costs are rising

[adrianbye]

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.