OAKLAND, Calif., July 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ask.com, the leading online brand for questions and answers and an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI), today announced its purchase of nRelate, a rapidly growing content discovery company with more than 35,000 publishers using its products. With this acquisition, Ask is able to apply its technology and expertise in search-based content discovery to improve and optimize nRelate's existing products for publisher websites and create better marketing opportunities for content owners. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

nRelate's content discovery platform helps its thousands of publisher customers, including bloggers and media organizations across a range of categories such as food, parenting and DIY, increase traffic and user engagement through targeted article recommendations. Publishers can also earn revenue when users navigate to sponsored articles from nRelate's content partners.

"Ask.com has been successfully building its Q&A business, yielding record growth and profits, allowing us to witness, firsthand, how users' appetites for browsing and discovering content is only growing," said Doug Leeds, CEO, Ask.com. "In addition to enhancing reader engagement, nRelate represents a promising native monetization model for publishers.  We're also excited to provide a platform that enables content creators to expose top-notch content to new audiences."

nRelate's flexible and customizable platform has spurred 15 percent growth in impressions each month during the last year. In addition to broadening nRelate's existing suite of content discovery products, the combination will offer publishers and content owners the opportunity to supply relevant answers as part of Ask's Q&A platform, which attracts 65 million unique U.S. visitors every month.

"When it comes to content discovery products, publishers often get the short end of the stick with little control or customization," said Neil Mody, founder and CEO of nRelate. "nRelate has been successful in part due to the flexibility of our products that allow publishers to design the product exactly how they want. The combination with Ask gives us access to new technologies and resources to fuel a wider range of products that both move the needle for publishers and improve the reader experience."

Mody will continue to run the business and oversee all operations from nRelate's offices in New York City.

About Ask.com
With more than 100 million global users, Ask.com is the leading online brand for questions and answers and an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI).  Now available as a mobile service, Ask.com mobile apps have been downloaded more than 2 million times. More information is available at www.ask.com or http://blog.ask.com.

About nRelate
Founded in 2009, nRelate's content recommendation platform helps thousands of publishers creating quality content in topic areas like food, parenting, DIY and technology increase traffic and revenue through targeted article recommendations. Through distribution on nRelate's network, content marketers can reach audiences uniquely engaged with content they trust. More information is available at www.nrelate.com

About IAC
IAC (NASDAQ: IACI) is a leading media and Internet company comprised of more than 150 brands and products, including Match.com, Ask.com, CollegeHumor, and CityGrid Media. Focused in the areas of Search, Personals, Local and Media, IAC's family of websites is one of the largest in the world, with nearly a billion monthly visits across more than 30 countries. The company is headquartered in New York City with offices in various locations throughout the U.S. and internationally.  To view a full list of the companies of IAC, please visit our website at www.iac.com.

SOURCE Ask.com