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?"

IWon is right!

Do you think the creators of www.iwon.com had any idea they'd be in store for a $2,000,000,000 windfall?

Did anyone

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

all the non-technical staff here do, they seem to think that you can just ask it anything and it knows the answer. I've seen some really bad full sentence queries get put into it....

Re:Did anyone

I can tell you that the only time I was getting hits from Ask Jeeves is when I was banning a stalker from viewing my gallery. Ask Jeeves had apparently indexed my gallery at one point (ignoring the robots.txt) and had not removed it at any time.

I started seeing these OBNOXIOUS log entries with referrers from ask.com (see here [lazylightning.org]).

I finally had to email ask.com to have them removed. They ignored my first request and then finally removed it after a repeated request. They certainly weren't as easy to deal w/as Google's removal tool.

Personally? I'd never use anything other than Google.

Re:Did anyone

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. [searchenginewatch.com]

Great!

Wider distribution for the nightmarish mix of malware provided through AskJeeves!

Let's hope so!

Bring on the good times. I'm going to start a search engine called askstrongbad.com and it's gonna make billions and be the best thing out there since that techno song I heard one time!

The Poster Askes

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.

I'd say it's a good thing

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.

So...

did anyone care to ask Jeeves what he thinks of this?

myway

Askjeeves owns myway.com, a portal with the motto "no banners, no ads, no kidding" Let's hope they don't mess with that.

Natural Progression of Business...

It seems like when some new, highly exploitable technology comes out, hundreds of little companies start out. Those companies slowly die out, and the ones that are left, are gobbled up by the largest of the remaining companies, and it leaves room for the new, baby companies again.

Holds true for cars, computers, and now, .coms. Interesting..

Good going Jeeves!

With $2 billion in his pocket, maybe he can afford now to pay his OWN butler.

Bloglines too

Ask Jeeves, Inc. also owns Bloglines [bloglines.com].

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

Good times again....

Could be that everyone is consolidating so it will be easier for MS to just buy everything at one sale.

Let's get them out of the way..

1. In soviet Russia, Jeeves asks YOU!

2. In Korea, only old people ask Jeeves.

3. I, for one, welcome our new butler overlords.

and finally...

4. I AM a butler, you insensitive clod!

Summary

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

That's not even a sentence.

Sounds about right...

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.

Are the good times back? Nope....

Historically everytime there has been a new technology there has been a "bubble" (You didn't think the internet bubble was the first bubble did you?

Money gets thrown in at a breakneck pace, there's a bubble for a few years and then KABOOM! Market implosion when reality finally hits.

Then after the smoke clears and the dust settles a new golden age begins followed by consolidation. I think it's safe to say that we are in consolidation mode now. Now is the time that the lasting 1600 pound gorillas get formed. Interactive Corp is one of those gorillas along with Ebay and Amazon.

Are they?

Are the good times back?

Let's ask jeeves [ask.com]!

Traffic costs are rising

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.

Related article on The Register

Complete with nifty headline:

Ask Jeeves if it's been bought [theregister.co.uk]

iWon is powered by google

I find that kind of amusing.

Wow.

Somebody had $2BN burning a hole in their pocket eh?

Looks like somebody got ripped off too.

Paper money

From the article:

Under the terms of the deal, IAC will issue 1.26 shares of its common stock for each share of Ask Jeeves common stock in a tax-free transaction

Thus this doesn't really say anything at all about the real value. Just one bubble merging with another bubble. I would be more impressed if they offered to buy the shares with real money instead of shares in another company.

Beekeeping in New Zealand!

Q: So, Jeeves, what is it like being hooked into the internet?

A: Beekeeping in New Zealand [satirewire.com].

Fucker can buy a lot of bees for 2 Billion.

Funny (?) Ask Jeeves search results

What's the best search engine? [ask.com]

why does Ask Jeeves suck so hard? [ask.com]

Do you like goatse? [ask.com]

Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of those? [ask.com]

I'd wish them all well but...

Since I got my first 'Ask Jeeves' popunder in Firefox last night they can go boil their heads.

Actually...

It's being sold for $1.85 billion. Two very different numbers.

But, is Jeeves gay?

. . . get the answer here [ask.com].

This is weird

I tried to use Ask Jeeves a couple of times when it came out, and the answers I got to my questions were so bad, so wrong, so utterly useless, it hurt my feelings.

Try it now, it will take you back to the bad old days before Google, when nothing but random crap shows up. Then try Google, and feel the almost mystical connection from your query to your results.

It seems to me like it is almost a crime that no one has forcibly made the users of Ask Jeeves sit down and try Google.

Bought by the ticketmaster scammers?!

Jees, I don't think being bought by ticketmaster is anything to get excited about!

And I thought Microsoft owned Expedia?

Did anyone ever use Jeeves even in it's prime? I always thought it was pretty useless....

Not bought, swapped

It's a stock swap merger, not a cash buy. "Under the terms of Monday's deal, IAC will issue 1.26 shares of its common stock for each share of Ask Jeeves common stock in a tax-free transaction valued at $1.85 billion, discounting any cash involved in the buyout."

Like most mergers, it will probably be a dud. The performance history of merger and acquisition activity is, overall, negative. But because it increases volatility, it enhances CEO pay.

Which came first: Bloglines or InterActiveCorp?

I would like to know whether Ask Jeeves started to talk with InterActiveCorp before of after buying Bloglines.

ASKJ/GRU valuation spread (correct link)

Oops, that link was broken. This should work: http://answersblogger.blogspot.com/2005/03/ask-jee ves-selling-for-2-billion.html [blogspot.com] "If you look at this graph comparing traffic trends at askjeeves and answers.com, you might find yourself wondering whether answers.com traffic might soon reach the levels of askjeeves.com traffic. Then you might note that at $20, Gurunet (GRU, owners of anwers.com) has a market cap roughly 1/10 the askjeeves price."

2 Billion!??

man 2 billion for such a worthless site. I would have sold them askkarl.com for a measly 500 Mil

Fools and their money ...

I have never gotten any useful results form AskJeeves.

don't forget ServiceMagic.com!

IAC also owns my employer, ServiceMagic.com

Try it out next time you need a maid, mover, plumber, electrician, or other home contractor!

</utterly shameless plug>

Brainboost.com is better for natural-language quer

I haven't used it that much, but Brainboost.com [brainboost.com] seems to be better for natural-language queries. It's being used in a NASA-sponsored project, so it's gotta be pretty good.

Re:Editing

Yeah, it's "whose". 1) "Whose" -> "of someone" 2) "Who's" -> short for "who is" 3) "Who'se" -> ??? PROFIT!!

Don't worry. did you read the fine print?

"OMFG!!! 2 billion? 2 BILLION??"

Did you read the fine print? The 2 billion dollars was paid in Flooz and online petfood sales company stock options.

Who'se

"hoo-(gutteral stop)-SAY"

It's Klingon for "the editors here can't spell."

Re:WTF??

> OMFG!!! 2 billion? 2 BILLION??

I felt the same way. Reading through the news, Ask Jeeves was sold for $2 million with a b... er... go back.. go back.

Re: WTF??? I don't know....

why don't you Ask Jeeves?

Re:Anybody else notice that..

I noticed that too. Wasn't the situation that Bart and Lisa were reading Homer's map to the RV store and the directions said "Remember to Ask Jeeves".

Anyone want to correct me? I didn't know there'd be a test when I watched it.

To be fair, the episode also had Marge accussing Homer of doing nothing at work but Googling his own name.

Re:Anybody else notice that..

the simpsons mentioned ask jeeves last night? Maybe they knew something we didn't.

Yes, they knew how much they got paid to insert that ad in their content.

Re:ASKJ/GRU valuation spread

Oops, that link was broken. This should work: http://answersblogger.blogspot.com/2005/03/ask-jee ves-selling-for-2-billion.html/ [blogspot.com] "If you look at this graph comparing traffic trends at askjeeves and answers.com, you might find yourself wondering whether answers.com traffic might soon reach the levels of askjeeves.com traffic. Then you might note that at $20, Gurunet (GRU, owners of anwers.com) has a market cap roughly 1/10 the askjeeves price."