WebProNews

The NY Times reports that Interactive Corp. (e.g. Barry Diller's company) is buying Ask Jeeves, which now owns Bloglines.

I guess it's consolidation day in Internet land. By the way, Rafat Ali at PaidContent.org predicted this over a month ago.

From the New York Times:

"iAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet company headed by Barry Diller, is close to an agreement to acquire Ask Jeeves Inc., the nation's fourth-largest search engine company, for about $1.9 billion, according to an executive involved in the negotiations.

An announcement could be made as early as today.

IAC/InterActive owns a variety of Internet businesses. Its principle holdings are Expedia, Ticketmaster, Home Shopping Network, Match.com and CitySearch. Advertising spending on search sites is rapidly growing and Mr. Diller's company appears to be trying to tap into a market dominated by Google and Yahoo.

Most of Ask Jeeves's revenue comes from advertising that appears on its sites through a contract with Google. That contract runs through 2007"

Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.