Overture snaps up Alta Vista for just $140m [RIP for search engine]

Financial Times (registration required) ^ | Ben Hunt | Ben Hunt

[Fractal Trader]

The dramatic collapse in the value of internet companies was highlighted once more by Overture's $140m acquisition of Alta Vista, one of the pioneers of web search and once one of the world's most coveted online companies.

Alta Vista's struggling parent CMGI, the Massachusetts-based technology group, has sold one of its crown jewels for just a fraction of the $2.3bn it paid to Compaq in 1999, when it took an 83 per cent stake in Alta Vista.

Overture, which calls itself "the world's leader in Pay-For-Performance search", allows advertisers to bid for well-placed spots among web search results on sites such as Yahoo! and MSN.

Pasadena-based Overture said it intended to enhance its own products with AltaVista's algorithmic search technology, and would use the famous Alta Vista portal as a test site for new services and products.

Overture, which is to pay $60m in cash and $80m in shares for Alta Vista, said the acquisition would be dilutive to earnings in the short term.

[Fractal Trader]

Personally, I'm a Google addict. Sometimes I use About.com for their friendly structure. Found a recipe quickly on them the other day. (Are they owed by Google?)

Are there any other search engine favorites that fellow Freepers have?

[freeper2003]

Google is the KING!!!

[Steven W.]

why do you say RIP for AltaVista? More likely RIP for CMGI

[Snowy]

Google. However, I use "Copernic Pro" for most of my searches.

[MineralMan]

"Pasadena-based Overture said it intended to enhance its own products with AltaVista's algorithmic search technology, and would use the famous Alta Vista portal as a test site for new services and products. "

I tried a couple of those services at one point. Zero positive results, but I did get tons more spam on my business' email.

With Google out there, the other search engines are essentially history.

[Moosilauke]

Good to see that there's always a greater fool. But a greater fool than CMGI? That's hard to believe.

[aruanan]

Alta What? Oh, yeah. That search engine that used to be good a few years ago.

[LibWhacker]

Two things killed off Alta Vista: Google and pay-per-search. I used to be an AV fan when they were the leading search engine out there. Then they got full of themselves and floated the idea of charging for searches. Thank God Google came along.

[HonorInPa]

For a real 'think outside the box' search engine try kartoo.com. Shows relationships between web pages in graohical format.

[weegee]

CMGI bought AltaVista from Compaq with CMGI stock. That stock trippled in value and then plummeted to less than half the original value within a year.

If Compaq had sold AltaVista off earlier, they wouldn't have had the financial problems that resulted in the ousting of Eckard. I won't attack or defend Eckard as the CEO of Compaq but there was an internal power struggle going on at Compaq that was not in the best interests of the employees or the shareholders.

Even when AltaVista was "sold" off, there was no attempt to capitalize on the influx of money (the internet bubble was already bursting but Compaq said that they would partner with CMGI and stood by them when the company tanked).

[weegee]

When CMGI acquird AltaVista, they were in danger of having their stock reclassified because they didn't have an actual product, they were a company that owned some shares of a bunch of other companies (not controlling shares).

[weegee]

AltaVista's strength right now is the Babblefish translator which will translate webpages and text between a variety of languages.

I use Google mostly but I will turn to Yahoo on occassion.

[Snerfling]

All the traffic that comes to my commercial sites is from Google.

[Snerfling]

If you're interested, type in 'accounting oversight board' or 'sarbanes oxley' and see what you get. Gues which ones are mine.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I remember when they were going to have an AltaVista IPO - it was going to raise billions, CMGI said. LOL!

[ErnBatavia]

Alta-Vista's "image search" really outdoes Google's though....it's been my main treasure trove for the stuff I pop onto Free Republic.

[Southack]

Why pay $140 Million for a web page, some servers, and some outdated code?

[wardaddy]

Incredible....I used to day trade CMGI a few years back. It was probably the most volatile stock around with huge daily swings....great for daytrading.

My, how the mighty have fallen.

[weegee]

I do alright by Google's image search (sometimes it's a matter of finding the right search term). I also bookmark key images so I can easily recall them for other threads.

[aruanan]

Alta-Vista's "image search" really outdoes Google's though....it's been my main treasure trove for the stuff I pop onto Free Republic.

I've gotten lots of good stuff through Google but have never seen the image search of A-V. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the tip.