Idearc Inc., which owns Superpages.com and is the publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages announced plans this week to acquire Switchboard.com and additional online directory properties from InfoSpace Inc. at a price of $225 million. Idearc will assume Switchboard.com's existing distribution network.
According to comScore's Media Matrix, Superpages.com's network had 21.3 million unique visitors and InfoSpace Directories and Resources had 7.7 million unique visitors in August 2007. Superpages.com had more than 2.8 billion network searches in 2006.
Idearc officials outlined in a press release announcing the deal that the company expects to increase the scale of its local search platform to help advertisers reach an even larger group of customers.
This acquisition was definitely a good move by Idearc since it will simply help Superpages.com solidify its position as a leader among Internet yellow pages sites. More advertisers will likely be drawn to Superpages.com because of its even greater reach. It will be interesting to see if Superpages.com bolsters the features and functionality of its offerings as well. It will also be interesting to see what happens to InfoSpace now that it has left this 'space.' InfoSpace had only acquired Switchboard in 2004 (for a $160 million price tag).