Ask Jeeves, the question-and-answer format search engine, this week announced it has entered into an agreement to buy Direct Hit Technologies in a stock swap deal worth $507 million.
The value of the deal is based on the current stock price for Ask Jeeves, which closed at $99 Monday on the NASDAQ stock market.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Emeryville, California Ask Jeeves would swap 5.12 million shares for all outstanding stock, warrants and options of Direct Hit, the company says.
Direct Hit, which makes the Direct Hit Popularity Engine, would in turn own about 12% of Ask Jeeves, the company says.
The Direct Hit technology can analyze which Internet sites are most visited by users and for how long by tracking the keyword searches of individual users. The results collected from the anonymous users are tracked and ranked by popularity. The Web portal HotBot has been using the Direct Hit technology since last February.
Direct Hit also licenses its popularity-based search technology to AT&T, WorldNet, About.com, Go2Net, InfoSpace.com and ZDNet, the company says.
Ask Jeeves expects the improved search technology and expanded customer base from Direct Hit would double its customer base. From there, Ask Jeeves would pursue new business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce and e-marketing opportunities, the company says.
Ask Jeeves can be contacted at 510-985-7400, or www.ask.com/. Direct Hit can be reached at 781-235-7570 or at www.directhit.com/.
RELATED LINKS
RELATED LINKS
