Ask Jeeves Acquires Excite Europe
May 20 2005 - 7:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Ask Jeeves Acquires Excite Europe Acquisition Unifies Excite Brands
in U.S. and Europe, and Accelerates the Company's International
Growth Strategy OAKLAND, Calif., May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Ask Jeeves, Inc., a leading provider of information retrieval
technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today
announced the acquisition of Excite Italia B.V., the operator of
Excite Europe, a network of pan-European portal properties, from
Tiscali, S.p.A. Ask Jeeves acquired the U.S.-operated Excite.com
portal in March 2004. "This deal is a next step in Ask Jeeves'
European expansion strategy," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask
Jeeves, Inc. "Access to Excite's pan-European operational
infrastructure and market knowledge will accelerate our European
growth initiative and provide an instant revenue stream from
additional users and advertisers." The acquisition of Excite Europe
will extend Ask Jeeves' ownership of the Excite brand beyond the
United States, giving the Company ownership of Excite's Internet
domains throughout Europe as well as control of existing portal
offerings in several major European markets including Spain, Italy,
France, UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. The acquisition
provides immediate access to a wealth of resources in the European
portal market in terms of users, operations, market knowledge and
revenue streams. Ask Jeeves will also have the ability to extend
its leading search technology to Excite Europe users. Excite is a
well-known name on the Internet, offering search and portal
services since 1995 and recognized for pioneering the customizable
start page. Excite will remain a separate brand under Ask Jeeves
Inc., with operations continuing out of Excite Europe's
headquarters in Rome, Italy. The financial terms of the acquisition
were not disclosed. Ask Jeeves does not expect the acquisition to
have a material impact on 2005 revenues or earnings per share, and
does not expect the acquisition to affect Ask Jeeves' financial
guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter earnings
announcement on April 27, 2005. Cautionary Note regarding
Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements include all statements regarding the impact of Excite
Europe on Ask Jeeves' revenues, earnings per share and guidance,
and all other statements regarding future features, functionality
and anticipated benefits of Ask Jeeves product and service
offerings. Actual results, developments or events may differ
materially from those referenced in forward-looking statements.
Factors that may cause actual results, developments or events to
differ from the related forward-looking statements are described in
the risk factors described in Ask Jeeves' Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, subsequently filed Form
10-Qs and other public filings made with the SEC, all of which are
available without charge at http://www.sec.gov/. Ask Jeeves
undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements for
future events, circumstances or developments. About Ask Jeeves,
Inc. As the 6th largest global web property (ComScore Media Metrix,
March 2005), Ask Jeeves Inc. delivers world-class information
retrieval products through a diverse portfolio of Web sites,
portals and downloadable applications. Ask Jeeves' search and
search-based portal brands include: Ask Jeeves (Ask.com, Ask.co.uk
and es.Ask.com), the Ask Jeeves Japan joint venture (Ask.jp), Ask
Jeeves for Kids (AJKids.com), Bloglines (bloglines.com), Excite
(excite.com), iWon (iwon.com), My Way (myway.com) and Fun Web
Products (funwebproducts.com). Additionally, Ask Jeeves owns the
differentiated search technology Teoma, as well as natural language
processing, portal and ad- serving technologies. Ask Jeeves
generates revenue from advertisers seeking to reach the company's
broad-based online audience. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves has been a
publicly traded company on the Nasdaq National Market since July
1999. Its headquarters are located in Oakland, California, with
offices throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and
Asia. For more information, visit http://www.ask.com/ or call
510-985-7400. NOTE: Ask Jeeves, AJinteractive, Ask.com, Teoma, My
Way, My Search, My Web Search, iWon, Excite and Bloglines are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Ask Jeeves, Inc. DATASOURCE:
Ask Jeeves, Inc. CONTACT: Colby Zintl, Ask Jeeves Corporate
Communications, +1-510-985-7640, or ; or Darcy Cobb of Dotted Line
Communications, +1-310-472-8600, or , for Ask Jeeves, Inc. Web
site: http://www.ask.com/
Copyright