Answers Corp., creator of Answers.com, has agreed to acquire Lexico Publishing Group LLC, owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, for $100 million in cash.
The transaction, subject to financing and customary closing conditions, is scheduled to complete by this fall.
Lexico provides reference products and services and attracted about 11.5 million unique users in the United States in June, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Answers will be able to increase its page views through this acquisition. More than 85 percent of Lexico’s traffic is direct from people searching specifically for the word “dictionary” in search engines.
The resulting shift in traffic mix should significantly reduce Answers.com’s current reliance on search-engine algorithms, the company claimed.
According to comScore’s June data, the addition of Lexico’s Web properties will increase Answers reach to more than 22.5 million monthly unique users, which would rank No. 28 in the top US properties.
