| Type | Public Corporation (NASDAQ: INSP) |
|---|---|
| Founded | March 1996 |
| Founder(s) | Naveen Jain |
| Headquarters | Bellevue, Washington, USA |
| Key people | William J. Ruckelshaus (Chairman, President and CEO) |
| Services | metasearch and private-label Internet search |
| Revenue | $207.6 million for FY2009[1] |
| Website | http://www.infospaceinc.com/ |
Infospace (NASDAQ: INSP) provides metasearch and private-label Internet search services for consumers and businesses.[2]
InfoSpace's flagship metasearch site is Dogpile; its other consumer brands are WebCrawler, Nation, DoGreatGood and MetaCrawler.[2]
InfoSpace was founded in March 1996 by Naveen Jain after he left Microsoft. He served as CEO until 2000. The company, which started with six employees, built an online yellow pages service to be funded through advertising. A set of simple chat rooms (based on HTML and meta refresh) were also available on the site.
InfoSpace went public on December 15, 1998. The company raised $75 million in the offering.[3]
In July 2000, InfoSpace acquired Go2Net. After the merger, Go2Net CEO Russell Horowitz became president of Infospace.[4]
Also, in 2000, InfoSpace used a controversial accounting method to report $46 million in profits when in fact it had lost $282 million. Company executives skirted SEC trading restrictions to sell large blocks of their personal stock.[5]
Jain resumed the role of CEO in 2001,[6] but was forced out by InfoSpace's board as chairman and CEO in December 2002.[7]
By June 2002, the company's stock price, which reached $1,305 in March 2000,[8] had dropped to $2.67.[9]
In 2003, InfoSpace acquired Moviso[10] from Vivendi Universal Net USA. Moviso provides ringtones, wallpapers and video games, usually accessed through a mobile handset enabling wireless carriers to charge a fee for these downloads.
In early March 2003, InfoSpace sued Jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements in his role at newly founded Intelius. In an interview after the suit was filed, Jain said the lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for Jain's whistle-blowing.[7] In April 2003, he resigned from the InfoSpace board.[11]
In 2004, InfoSpace acquired Switchboard, which is now owned by Verizon spin-off Idearc Media, and overshadowed by Idearc's SuperPages. It also moved into the mobile games space, acquiring Atlas Mobile, IOMO and elkware.[12]
In November 2009, InfoSpace started an online auction website called haggle.com.[13] A year later, it shut down the website and sold its assets to BigDeal.com.[14]
In September 2011, InfoSpace secured a $100 million credit facility.[15]
In a shareholder lawsuit filed in 2003, a lower court federal judge ruled that former InfoSpace CEO, Naveen Jain, had purchased shares of Infospace in violation of six month short swing insider trading rules, and issued a $247 million judgment against him, the largest award of its kind at that time.[16] While on appeal in 2005, Jain settled the case for $105 million, while denying liability. Jain's attempt in further litigation against his former lawyers for the loss was dismissed.[17][18][19]