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New York Times Set to Sell About.com for $270 Million to Answers.com

19 points by iProject 14y ago

debacle 14y ago
This is a huge deal. Historically, about.com was an excellent reference, but with the advent of wikipedia and, in my opinion, the general decline in quality of about.com authorship, it was easy to ignore them. Hopefully Answers.com can revitalize their unique editorial model, but I'm not really holding my breath.
- sulife 14y ago
  It feels like about.com sells every 3-6 years for a lower price.
- AznHisoka 14y ago
  It's not about Wikipedia. It's about the declining ROI on online publishing, and the effect of Google Panda on their bottom line. Historically, noone visited about.com for reference on a topic.. they just stumbled upon it when they saw it ranking #1 for a keyword.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
lrs 14y ago
Unreal. How can such an awful website have $270 million on hand, and how can they be willing to spend it on another awful website?
- ahi 14y ago
  They don't have $270 million on hand. They are looking for financing.
  - lrs 14y ago
    Whoops, my mistake - thanks for the correction. Still baffled by how answers.com expects to get $270M of financing to buy about.com. To anyone who has ever clicked a link to either of those domains from a Google query, the headline must seem Onion-like.
- kbojody 14y ago
  My exact thoughts. There has been more than one occasion that I have found good resources on about.com. However, I don't think I can say the same for answers.com. Half the time I run across a page on it, there is no answer just the question. I got so tired of it I blocked it from all my Google search results. It's also filled with so many ads you can hardly find any information on it.
caycep 14y ago
hopefully getting rid of needless costs too. I don't know anyone who uses this
eriktrautman 14y ago
I hope these awful SEO-bait sites keep consolidating so they can eventually fade away into history. I've never gotten a useful answer from either site, just bombarded with ads and filler text. Quora and Wikipedia should be more than enough to fill that entire space (assuming Quora can keep up the quality as it gets more and more mainstream).
- AznHisoka 14y ago
  I know Yahoo Answers has a lot of spam but there's some gems in there that Quora doesn't have. Especially casual questions and questions related to sex.
trg2 14y ago
About.com is the "for dummies" books of search results. Mediocre information on a wide vaiety of topics. It's kind of like a unisex salon in a one-horse town. You don't want to go, but it's there, so many do by default. Quora, please, please send Answers / About to a spot in the late 90's graveyard next to Pets.com.
salimmadjd 14y ago
Anyone remembers the price About was sold several years back? I recall another private equity who bought it and then flipped it for bunch of profits.
- djahng 14y ago
  It says in the article About was bought by the New York Times for $410 million in 2005.
the_wanderer 14y ago
more ads than content. where is the value?

19 points by iProject 14y ago

This is a huge deal. Historically, about.com was an excellent reference, but with the advent of wikipedia and, in my opinion, the general decline in quality of about.com authorship, it was easy to ignore them. Hopefully Answers.com can revitalize their unique editorial model, but I'm not really holding my breath.

sulife 14y ago
It feels like about.com sells every 3-6 years for a lower price.
AznHisoka 14y ago
It's not about Wikipedia. It's about the declining ROI on online publishing, and the effect of Google Panda on their bottom line. Historically, noone visited about.com for reference on a topic.. they just stumbled upon it when they saw it ranking #1 for a keyword.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

lrs 14y ago

Unreal. How can such an awful website have $270 million on hand, and how can they be willing to spend it on another awful website?

ahi 14y ago
They don't have $270 million on hand. They are looking for financing.
- lrs 14y ago
  Whoops, my mistake - thanks for the correction. Still baffled by how answers.com expects to get $270M of financing to buy about.com. To anyone who has ever clicked a link to either of those domains from a Google query, the headline must seem Onion-like.
kbojody 14y ago
My exact thoughts. There has been more than one occasion that I have found good resources on about.com. However, I don't think I can say the same for answers.com. Half the time I run across a page on it, there is no answer just the question. I got so tired of it I blocked it from all my Google search results. It's also filled with so many ads you can hardly find any information on it.

caycep 14y ago

hopefully getting rid of needless costs too. I don't know anyone who uses this

eriktrautman 14y ago

I hope these awful SEO-bait sites keep consolidating so they can eventually fade away into history. I've never gotten a useful answer from either site, just bombarded with ads and filler text. Quora and Wikipedia should be more than enough to fill that entire space (assuming Quora can keep up the quality as it gets more and more mainstream).

AznHisoka 14y ago
I know Yahoo Answers has a lot of spam but there's some gems in there that Quora doesn't have. Especially casual questions and questions related to sex.

trg2 14y ago

About.com is the "for dummies" books of search results. Mediocre information on a wide vaiety of topics. It's kind of like a unisex salon in a one-horse town. You don't want to go, but it's there, so many do by default. Quora, please, please send Answers / About to a spot in the late 90's graveyard next to Pets.com.

salimmadjd 14y ago

Anyone remembers the price About was sold several years back? I recall another private equity who bought it and then flipped it for bunch of profits.

djahng 14y ago
It says in the article About was bought by the New York Times for $410 million in 2005.

the_wanderer 14y ago

more ads than content. where is the value?