AskJeeves Buys Focus
Web Design & Technology News, March 5, 2004

March 5, 2004

AskJeeves said Thursday that it is buying Interactive Search Holdings, formerly Focus Interactive Inc. and owner of several destination sites including iWon.com, Excite.com and MyWay.com, for about $343M in cash and stock.
By Stefanie Olsen

Under the terms of the deal, AskJeeves will issue 9.3M shares of common stock to Interactive Search Holdings, and another $150M in cash. It will also pay an additional $17.5M in cash based on the company's operating performance.

The deal is expected to close during Q3 2004. Interactive Search would become a wholly owned subsidiary of AskJeeves.

Through the deal, AskJeeves is making a play for greater visibility in the search arena after several years in relative obscurity compared with search luminaries Google and Yahoo. Earlier this week, it sought to differentiate itself from Yahoo's new search engine by removing its paid-inclusion service for algorithmic search.

The Emeryville, California-based company also plans to boost its odds of collecting ad revenue from search-related marketing, an industry worth an expected $4 billion in 2004. Search-related ads from Google have already buoyed AskJeeves' earnings over the last year. And Interactive Search owns several popular Web sites, including sweepstakes site iWon.com and portal Excite.com, which are destination sites that rely on search-related ads and pop-up advertising.

Interactive Search, headquartered in Irvington, N.Y., also owns another Yahoo rival, MyWay.com, which touts a Web navigation environment free of pop-up and banner ads. MyWay supports itself solely from keyword-search ads from Google.

Jupiter Research media analyst Nate Elliot said that the acquisition should provide AskJeeves with distribution for its growing ad network outside of search. The company has been building an ad network in which it sells banners, pop-ups and pop-unders. "This looks like a big improvement to the distribution of that network," said Elliot.

In total, AskJeeves will buy six properties, including Maxworldwide, whose collective traffic made Interactive Search the ninth most visited property online in December, according to researcher Nielsen/NetRatings. The company expects revenue of between $225M and $235M in 2004 as a result of the deal.

Last year, AskJeeves reported operating earnings of 40 cents a share, based on revenue of $107.3M.

"This acquisition will double our market share, enhance our ability to compete in the fast-growing search market, and is expected to increase the financial returns to our shareholders," AskJeeves' CEO Steve Berkowitz said in a statement.

Investors seemed to like the sound of the deal. In trading Thursday, AskJeeves' shares closed up $8.30, or 40%, to $29.01.