IAC's Ask.com Acquires Dictionary.com Parent Lexico Publishing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 15, 2008 - 7:41am.

Oakland, Calif. - Ask.com, the search engine unit of IAC (NASD: IACI), announced on Thursday that it will acquire Lexico Publishing Group, the owner of reference sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, for an undisclosed sum.

Ask.com said the acquisition will increase its unique monthly user base by 11%, to more than 145 million, making it the ninth-largest Web property in the world, based on comScore World Metrix data.

The company will also serve ads against reference search results on Lexico's sites.

Founded in 1995, Lexico's family of sites now claim 15.6 million unique monthly users, growing 29% year-over-year.

"More than 30 percent of all searches conducted on Ask.com are in the reference category," said Ask.com CEO Jim Safka.

"In fact, 'dictionary' was the second-most searched term on Ask.com in 2007. At the same time, Lexico's consumers frequently seek out a search engine immediately before and after using one of Lexico's sites. This acquisition expands Ask.com's reach and aligns perfectly with our customers' needs."