Question and answer reference site Answers.com has purchased Dictionary.com’s parent company, Lexico Publishing, for $100 million in cash. Lexico can really serve all your lexical needs because it also owns Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. The deal is expected to close later this fall.
The deal has some major benefits for Answers.com. In 2006, Lexico generated revenues of $7 million, EBITDA of $2.9 million and net income of $2.8 million. It also generates approximately three times the total page views of Answers.com and is expected to add 22.5 million monthly unique users, making Answers the #28 property on the web.
congrats to both!
This certainly is a logical vertical acquisition - but any wagers on them getting
Encyclopedia.com???
Very nice.
I love dictionary.com/thesaurus.com and use them daily.
bub·ble /ˈbʌbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[buhb-uhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, -bled, -bling.
–noun
4. anything that lacks firmness, substance, or permanence; an illusion or delusion.
5. an inflated speculation, esp. if fraudulent: The real-estate bubble ruined many investors.
“bubble.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 16 Jul. 2007. .
will they buy questions.com to make complete set?
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My 2 favourite Wiki alternatives hooked up :).
I’m not a regular answers.com user but I do use dictionary.com regularly, it’s a great service that has wide use; it will expose the Answers brand to an even wider audience.
Good for them! I’ve also been a dictionary/thesaurus.com fan, and paying subscriber, for several years. One of the best resources on the net.
I am not sure if there are even 10 million words in the dictionary, but if it is so quick math says ten bucks a word for the acquisition. I ran into http://asksolvers.com/viewasks/?do=25 another new QandA site entry; seems like its has a better concept execution than answers.com.
Some jackass journalist always put complicated words. You see union and contruction workers graduated technical college. They don’t have time to look up complicated words.
Not because Americans are stupid. It’s just that we don’t have time.
EBITDA? Is this 1999? I thought people learned to use real numbers after the dotcom crash.
Well I’m sure both will benift from this. Congrats to both!
I agree Real Reason. I find too many writers exceedingly pedantic.
It’ll be interesting to see how they plan to fund this, since they only have like 12 million in the bank and are clawing to break even. A pretty big gamble, if you ask me.
I’ve always preferred m-w.com, maybe answers will fix it up a bit. Answers.com is a great site just because they copied all of their content from Wikipedia (but don’t tell people who are strict with Internet information sources).
-Chris
http://www.nerdcouncil.com
Maybe now they’ll finally lose the flipping pop-under ads and I can go back to using them.
nice aquisition
I’ve generally used m-w.com as Chris noted, but it is a nice acquisition.
one might say they’ve ’swallowed a dictionary’
“they copied all of their content from Wikipedia”
Chris, the term is “aggregated”. Let’s get our terminology correct before the 2nd bubble bursts. (insert smiley here)
For the last two years I’ve been on and off Answers.com. I find it to be a great time saver. You don’t have to think “should I search this in Google, Wikipedia, or do I need a straight definition”. And they’re Alt-Click for definitions is a handy tool, although a little slow. I assume Answers.com has been paying to use American Hertiage, so there is some cost saving for them. Either way, I hope they continue.
The constant pop-ups that somehow slip by the Firefox pop-up blocker have made Dictionary.com almost unusable for me.
I just added the Merriam-Webster search plugin to Firefox and will start using that instead.
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Dictionary.com financials should be an interesting read when they are filed in this acquisition.
I use dictionary.com alot - would use alot more if they didnt do pop unders
Sweet deal! I’m a dictionary.com user. Hope their service improves, innovates. How about a Google docs + thesaurus mashup?