Ask.com Acquires Dictionary.com

Ask.com has acquired Lexico Publishing Group, the company behind Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.

According to wire reports, Ask.com expects to expand its audience to more than 145 million unique monthly users, making Ask.com the ninth-largest web property globally accord to comScore. Ask.com Chief Executive Jim Safka told AP that the company hopes to make more money by showing ads to people looking for answers to basic questions, saying “We want to ‘super serve’ those people.”

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed, however the sites had previously been sold to Answers Corp, in a deal that failed back in March. The new deal is expected to be completed by the third quarter.