Source: NYTimes Co. to sell About.com to Answers.com for $270 million

[alp227]

(AP) The New York Times Co. has agreed to sell its troubled online information service, About.com, to rival Answers.com for $270 million, or two-thirds what the Times paid for it in 2005, according to a person familiar with the matter.

About.com provides information on a wide variety of topics and also operates ConsumerSearch.com and Calorie-Count.com. Content is written by paid experts known as guides. Answers.com, by contrast, relies on users to answer questions.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/nytimes-to-sell-aboutcom-to-answerscom-for-270-million/2012/08/08/0bde4480-e182-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html

[Drunken Irishman]

1. I didn't even know the New York Times owned about.com

[rfranklin]

2. Another easy money internet site gone sour...

The Times purchased About.com for roughly $410 million. It has suffered in the past year because of a change in the way Google handles search results. That change made About.com content harder to find...

...In the April-June quarter, the Times took a $126 million after-tax charge against earnings to reflect the declining value of the About.com business. That pushed the Times to an overall loss.

In that quarter, revenue from About.com fell 9 percent from a year ago to $25.4 million. Its adjusted operating profit fell 30 percent to $10.2 million. In 2011, revenue fell 19 percent to $111 million

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120808/us-new-york-times-about/