San Francisco — Ask.com, the top Internet search division of IAC, last week finalized an all-cash deal of the previously announced agreement to purchase Lexico Publishing Group LLC, the owner of popular reference sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.
Ask.com, had disclosed the all-cash transaction on May 15, 2008. Financial terms of the deal, which closed Thursday, were not released.
Ask.com said the agreement would increase its monthly audience by around 15 million users to 145 million, an increase of 11 percent.
According to statistics-tracker Hitwise, Ask.com had 4.23 percent of the U.S. search market in May. Microsoft had 5.89 percent, Yahoo had 19.95 percent, and Google overwhelmed them all with 68.29 percent.
The word “dictionary” was the second-largest searched term on Ask.com in 2007; the Oakland based search engine company noted when the deal was first announced.
Altogether, the Lexico sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com had more than 28 million unique visitors in March, according to Lexico.
“The collection of Lexico’s strong growth and assets with Ask.com’s industry-leading search experience considerably expands our audience reach, and aligns perfectly with our customers’ needs,” said Jim Safka, CEO of Ask.com.
Dictionary.com is the fifth most-visited reference site among U.S. Web users, according to data from online audience measurement site Hitwise Inc. Reference.com is 39th most visited and Thesaurus.com ranks 47th.
The power of Ask.com within e-commerce conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp is increasing as New York-based IAC intends to spin off four of its largest businesses and focus on Web media and advertising in coming months.
California-based Lexico was founded in 1995, beginning with Dictionary.com, and then a year later Lexico introduced Thesaurus.com and in 2002 began Reference.com.
For users who know what they mean but cannot bring to mind the term, it also offers a Reverse Dictionary (http://dictionary.reference.com/reverse/).