Search engine goes for $1.85 billion

After rebounding from a near dot-com death several years ago, Internet search firm Ask Jeeves Inc. is being purchased for $1.85 billion by Barry Diller's e-commerce firm IAC/InterActive Corp.

Ask Jeeves is currently listed as the fifth largest search engine by market share (5.1 percent). The driver of the merger is the lucrative paid search advertising market.

Advertisers continue to increase spending on sponsored links that appear next to regular search results. Every time a Web surfer clicks on those paid links, Ask Jeeves and other search engines get a sales commission.

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