Answers.com

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Answers Corporation
Answers.com Logo.png
Type Private
Founded 1999 (1999) (as GuruNet)
Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri
Founder(s) Bob Rosenschein
Key people David Karandish
(CEO)
Owner Apax Partners
Slogan(s) The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions.
Website www.answers.com
Alexa rank Decrease 156 (June 2012)[1]
Type of site Question & Answer
Available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Tagalog
Launched January 2005; 19 years ago (2005-01)
Current status Active

Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by entrepreneurs Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996.[2] The domain name was acquired by NetShepard and subsequently sold to GuruNet. The website is the primary product of the Answers Corporation (previously GuruNet), an Internet reference and Q&A company, founded by Bob Rosenschein in 1999. The site supports English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Tagalog. WikiAnswers is a community-generated social knowledge Q&A platform, using wiki-based technologies.[3]

History

GuruNet was founded in Jerusalem, Israel in 1999 to develop technology that intelligently and automatically integrates and retrieves information from disparate sources and delivers the result in a single consolidated view to the user. GuruNet initially displayed its information through a downloadable software product, today known as 1-Click Answers. The product was launched as a free product in 1999. Beginning in 2003 it was sold to users on a perpetual license base and later as an annual subscription.[4]

On October 2004 GuruNet had an IPO on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) under the symbol "GRU" and also acquired the Answers.com domain name early the same year for $80,000.[5]

On January 2005 the company moved to a new business model of a free-to-customer product, Answers.com and 1-Click Answers software, containing practically all the content that was sold via subscriptions. The new model is based on generating advertising revenue.[4]

On August 2, 2005, the company's shares started trading on NASDAQ instead of AMEX under the symbol "ANSW".[5]

On October 17, 2005, GuruNet changed its corporate name to Answers Corporation, unifying the company's name and its website, Answers.com.[5]

From 2005 to late 2009, the Google search engine definitions feature, in the top-right corner of the site, was linked to Answers.com.[citation needed]

On July 2, 2006, Answers.com released a trivia game known as blufr.[citation needed]

In the fall of 2009, Answers.com launched a revamped version of their website, which combined wiki-style contributions with expert resources.[6][7]

At Jeff Pulver's 140 Characters Conference in New York City in April 2010, Answers.com launched its alpha version of a Twitter-answering service nicknamed 'Hoopoe.' When tweeting a question to the site's official Twitter account, @AnswersDotCom, an automatic reply is given with a snippet of answer and a link to the full answer page on Answers.com.[8]

Aside from providing community-generated Q&A and reference information for published titles, Answers.com began offering videos as part of its VideoAnswers library, in July 2010. This was part of a partnership with video site 5min.[9]

In September 2010, blufr was relaunched with new design, game modes, and social features. It is available on the web and as an iPhone/iPod Touch app in the iTunes app store.

It was announced in November 2010 that the Answers.com Q&A wiki community reached its 10 millionth answer.[10]

At the start of 2011, the site surpassed 11 million answers. Shortly after, on February 3, Answers.com announced in a press release that it had agreed to be acquired by AFCV Holdings for $127 million in cash. AFCV Holdings, LLC, is a portfolio company of growth equity investor Summit Partners. Bob Rosenschein was quoted: "The acquisition price of $10.50 per share represents a significant cash premium of approximately 33% over our 90-day volume-weighted average closing stock price."[11][12][13]

On April 23, 2012 TA Associates announced that it was joining as an additional private investor in Answers.com and on May 1, 2012 laid off the remaining development staff in the Jerusalem office as a first step in fully assimilating the company.[14]

On August 8, 2012, reports surfaced that Answers.com had reached a preliminary agreement to acquire About.com from The New York Times Company for $270 million of debt and equity.[15] However, it was thwarted by IAC, who countered with a $300 million "clean cash" offer.[16]

Site statistics

As of December 2010, the site had the following ranking:

  • Unique monthly visitors 52.3 million in the USA and 86.8 million world wide[17]
  • Rank in top Web properties:

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://whois.domaintools.com/answers.com
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]

External links

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