InterActiveCorp buys Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion

Report today from ZDNet news that Ask Jeeves was bought for $1.85 billion. This shows how much the Internet advertising market has grown of late.

InterActiveCorp announced Monday that it has agreed to a $1.85 billion buyout of Ask Jeeves, a search engine that has long been overshadowed by Google and Yahoo. 

The New York-based Internet conglomerate, headed by Barry Diller, said that it is hoping to move aggressively into the Web search market through the deal, and pointed to growth in the online advertising market as another major incentive in making the acquisition. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves claims to process approximately 42 million unique queries generated by American Web surfers each month.