New York - Answers Corporation, which operates the dictionary and definitions site Answers.com used in Google search results, announced on Monday that it has acquired Lexico Publishing Group, which operates Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, for $100 million in cash.

Lexico's sites claimed 11.5 million unique monthly users in the U.S. during June, according to comScore; over 85% of its traffic is derived from users searching for the term "dictionary" on search engines.

The company generated $7 million in revenues and net income of $2.8 million in 2006.

Answers Corp. said that, based on comScore's June data, the addition of Lexico's sites will increase its overall reach to over 22.5 million monthly unique users, making it the 28th most-popular U.S. site.

"Lexico's suite of popular brands, steady direct traffic and loyal users are valuable assets that we believe will reduce our products' reliance on search engine-driven traffic," said Answers Corp. chairman and CEO Robert S. Rosenschein.

"Our combined size and available ad inventory should provide greater exposure among online media buyers, which we expect will lead to increased advertising sales."

Related Links:
http://ir.answers.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=254468

http://www.lexico.com

http://www.dictionary.com