go2net Inc. in Seattle, in a move aimed at bolstering its advertising and e-commerce offerings, said it will acquire Silicon Investor, one of the larger
financial discussion and research communities on the Internet, for $33 million in stock.
The company said the acquisition will nearly triple its current total page views per month and significantly increase its overall reach.
More than 100,000 individual investors visit Silicon Investor each day to
discuss and research investments, resulting in over 100 million page views per month.
The combination of Silicon Investor and go2net’s existing StockSite will create a “one-stop shop”
destination for investors, and will offer financial discussion, proprietary
company and market analysis, company research offerings, portfolio services,
and comprehensive charting capabilities.
“Silicon Investor is the perfect match for us because of our shared business
philosophy of technology-driven Web sites, which allows for low-cost content
creation” said Russell C. Horowitz, CEO of go2net.
Silicon Investor co-founder Brad Dryer said: “We are looking forward to moving operations to Seattle. go2net has a young, fast-moving team that works well together and sees the infinite potential of the financial space.”
Based on recent usage numbers, go2net and Silicon Investor together claim
approximately 500,000 unique visitors per day, as well as 5 million unique
users and 180 million page views per month.
go2net said it will pursue four distinct revenue streams: advertising,
subscription services, technology licensing, and commerce. In addition to
advertising revenues, Silicon Investor derives a substantial portion of its
revenues from subscription fees.
Under the terms of the acquisition, go2net will issue approximately 1.25
million of its common shares worth about $33 million in exchange for all
outstanding securities of Silicon Investor, which will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of go2net. The stock closed yesterday at $29, up $2.37.
go2net’s other properties include MetaCrawler, a search/index guide that
combines various existing search/index guides into one service (a “metasearch
engine”), and PlaySite, a Java-based multiplayer online games network.
StockSite offers proprietary articles, portfolio tracking tools, company research and news relating to business and finance.
