IAC announces the acquisition of About Group from New York Times Corporation

InterActive Corporation, IAC, announced Monday that it will acquire About.com and its parent company About Group for $300 Million from The New York Times Corporation.

The acquisition is 100 percent to side with IAC and the company will pay all the money in cash to news giants. NY Times bought About Group in 2005 for $410 Million.

“The About.com acquisition is completely in line with IAC’s M&A strategy of acquiring, at disciplined valuations, companies that are complementary and synergistic with both our existing businesses and our areas of expertise,” IAC CEO Greg Blatt said in a statement announcing the acquisition.

The announcement boosted IAC’s shares 1 percent midday on Monday, which amassed a total of 22 percent increase in the stock value accounted this year. The company recorded a total of $945.8 million in cash and equivalents as of June 30. The Times also had a fractional increase in its stock.

About Group’s main website About.com hosts about a thousand specific-topic websites and more than 3 Million articles. It has a user base of almost a hundred million monthly users which will certainly boost IAC’s core business in online operations.

IAC’s main business unit is Ask.com, one of the top five search engines in the world. It also has monthly users in tune of 100 Million. However, About.com will not work as a business unit rather it will be a part of the company’s ‘Search and Application’ business of which Ask.com is the major component.

The S&A unit accounted for the most revenues for the company the second fiscal quarter, around 51 percent. The business unit’s sales growth during the term was exponential at 42 percent, despite the fact that global economy is still in a turmoil and online business are aching as well.

However, S&A growth was not the only mesmerising fact in the quarterly report. It was in fact outpaced by IAC’s dating services that include infamous Match.com and OKCupid.com.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=31704

Posted by Usman Khalid on Aug 29 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.