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Ask.com Grows Audience by 11% Overnight!

posted on May 15, 2008


Here’s a riddle for you. How many employees does it take to grow Ask.com’s audience by 11%?

Answer: Apparently just 20.

It’s no joke! Ask.com has just announced it will acquire Lexico, owners of Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, in a move that will increase its audience by a whopping 11%.

Lexico has just 20 employees!

No financial terms have been released, but seeing as Lexico had been in talks with Answers.com for $100 million–the deal fell through last year–we suspect it to be in the same price range.

So, what are the integration plans?

Once the deal closes, likely in the third quarter, [IAC Chief Executive Jim] Safka expects Ask.com to quickly add new layers to the experience of Dictionary.com, such as its capacity to provide video clips and images alongside text entries. More than 30 percent of Ask.com searches today already fall within the reference category.


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  • http://zaknicola.wordpress.com Zak Nicola

    Nice title bait. Ask.com acquiring Lexico was not what I had in mind in terms of “how” Ask.com got an 11% increase in its user base.

    Zak Nicola’s last blog post..Google AdBloopers

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    @Zak – hah! Well it worked, you not only read but you left a comment too! :-)

  • http://www.barbaraling.com Barbara Ling

    I love Dictionary.com! And probably bunches of other parents/writers live for it too. Smart move (compared to their move of getting rid of Gary Price… :( )

    Barbara Ling’s last blog post..Today’s Words of Wisdom – 4 Simple Steps Anyone Can Do For Mega Publicity

  • http://www.newhomessection.com Jayson

    That’s a pretty huge increase. I wonder how many of those users are already users of ask.com and if they’ll truly get an 11% increase.

  • Jordan McCollum

    That’s odd. Wasn’t Lexico acquired by Answers.com last year: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/07/answers-buys-100m-dictionary-r eally.html ?

    Guess that didn’t go so well.

  • http://mp3leben.com Tiffany

    Let see if it can be achieved after the integration.

  • http://ww.seoresults.co.za Web Marketing Man

    Anything to get more diversity into the search market. Think this acquisition is very clever, as it targets a very important niche, and a very valuable reference resource.

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