America Online Inc. announced it acquired
Personal Library Software (PLS), a developer of indexing and search
technologies.
Under the agreement, AOL will acquire PLS and its software products in
exchange for AOL’s common stock. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We welcome PLS employees into the AOL family,” said Mike Connors,
President, AOL Technologies. “This acquisition of core search technology
will enable AOL to continue to improve our current search features, as well
as more quickly roll out new ones in the future.”
PLS’s search technology currently serves as the basis for AOL’s search
services, including AOL’s Member Directory, AOL Find, and Channel Search.
In addition to AOL, PLS software is used by AT&T, Dow Jones, The Washington
Post, USA Today, and Bertelsmann AG.
“This joining of forces is a natural event in the evolution of search,”
said Paul Kagan, PLS Chairman. “The advent of huge databases, linked by the
Internet, has presented information providers with new challenges in
distribution to the end-user. I believe the combination of these two
companies will lead to new advances in retrieval that will substantially
increase the knowledge and productivity of corporations and consumers.”
