Social search engine Delver, which we placed on death watch a month and a half ago has been acquired by Sears in a last minute play right out of left field.
Israeli business media is reporting that as part of the deal, Delver CEO Liad Agmon will move to Chicago where he will hold a title of VP at Sears Holdings. Delver itself will become an R&D center for Sears and will continue to develop its social graph search engine, as well as additional products. It is not clear what Sears wants to do with Delver. Perhaps it will turn it into a social product search engine, or maybe it just likes the idea of buying an Israeli R&D team on the cheap.
The purchase price is unknown but it’s safe to assume it could not be very high considering the company was literally days from being shut down. The bright side of course is that Delver’s remaining 20 employees will not join the unemployed in Israel.
The company has raised $4 million from a single investor, Carmel Ventures.
Huh?
What will happen now, Delver will display results from Kmart for every search?
This deal makes no sense unless it was just for pennies. Can you try to get some statement either from Sears or from Delver on this just giving an explanation for the rationale behind this deal. Or is Eddie Lampert trying to remake himself after the Sears fiasco?
From India
Anjali Sen
we are so lucky to have this spammer from India to enlighten all of us…
Please shut up and go back to your cave!
I second that.
Seriously. Can you do something about this woman?
She drives me crazy with her inanity. Can you block her? Please?
How is this any different from Google???? I would love to pay (on a monthly basis) to NOT have financially motivated results when I type in my search.
Great business model for the company, but not the end user.
If he lives in a cave, then your shack must be a muddy hole. Yes, you’re that poor comparing to him.
How is this guy a spammer? He’s just giving his opinion and signing his name. Lay off it.
Remember when Sears operated the Prodigy service? Maybe they just want to get back into the online world.
Actually now that you mention it, that is true. They were actually online pioneers!
lot more companies are being taken over at 0 value and financial outcome left at imaginary percentages that might turn green in the longer run. It’s just an adrenaline shot thats brought the heart back. doesn’t mean survival on the longer run.
Anjali do you know that your comments actually ensure that nobody will ever visit your blog? Well, thats not actually true. I did visit once to see if you are really as clueless in your blogs as you are in your postings on TC.
And now that that has been confirmed I dont plan to visit again.
Please go away. Read a book. Go to the library. Seriously leave TC alone.
This smacks of a passive recruiting team reaching for executives of companies based on job titles in your “death watch”. I have yet to see examples of that strategy ever working well….
Sears? Where people buy lawn tractors and charcoal grills? Huh? Their retailing hasn’t been doing so well……maybe soon enough we’ll be talking about Sears being on death watch.
I think the price will be pretty low. Anyway I hope delver services will still exist in the future
This is about Lands End who Sears owns?
Michael ….. normally I’d use my real name here but since I have a ‘relationship’ with Sears, it would be perceived as a conflict … I can tell you (and I’m not part of this ongoing initiative) that those that look beyond their ‘old perception’ of the company will realize that they’ve have been making a slew of ‘right moves’ on the Internet, not exclusive of multiple exciting websites, a variety of social engagement initiatives and more. One look at the Beta Sears site tells part of the story. A look at the balance sheet (and available cash) also shows they’ve been making huge changes, firing on all cylinders, and continue to be well ahead of the pack marketing on the Internet. Product quality remains intact and Customer Service has not been downsized. A Very Smart company
Good news for the economy.
Silicon Valley housing resale grew 100% yty in January. JPG got sold, now delver.
Like banks, VC funds are slower to circulate. As more bottom fishers emerge, our economy may be on its way back to investing and buying.
this could be about osh which sears owns also.
ToolsLocator.com – fix yourself
how much money do you spend buying random domains a day . ..? must be expensive
This article doesn’t present the whole picture so I won’t render a final verdict. At first impression it seems like a stretch, but I have to commend Sears for taking a chance on social search. Twitter has shown that social search is a huge growing market, so I’m interested to see how Sears handles this (because they need some help in a big way).
Congrats to Liad and the Delver team! Delver is a great idea, but search distro is tough and the economy does not help. Nice to see a win for a good team.
I am interested in how Sears contacted Delver or if Delver contacted Sears.. seems like an odd match..