Barry Diller Scoops Up About.com for $300 Million

Earlier this month it seemed surprising that Answers.com was willing to pay $270 million for The New York Times Company's struggling About.com, but then along came Barry Diller and IAC with an even higher offer last week, and on Monday The Times confirmed it had sold to the Ask.com owner. The $300 million cash sale may seem like a lot for a company that reported a 67 percent drop in revenue this year, but as The Atlantic Wire's Rebecca Greenfield pointed out last week, Diller knows how to make money on informational websites like About, and he's still getting a good deal on the site, which The New York Times Company bought in 2005 for $410 million. The Times plans to use the extra cash for "general corporate purposes," an employee told The Wall Street Journal's Christopher Stewart and Keach Hagey.