A kerfuffle in content: Legacy vernacular-based internet domain
procured by Detroit-based mortgage lender.
If you’re feeling flummoxed and conjecturing, “what does all of this gobbledygook mean?” There’s a website for you.
IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC)’s
Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are set to become a part of Detroit-based Rock Holdings, parent company of Quicken Loans. Terms of
the deal were not disclosed.
Investing In Words
A theme for the acquisition can be seen in Quicken Loans' heavy investment in the 2016 launch of Rocket Mortgage, the first
fully digital mortgage experience, designed to make consumers lives easier.
So why Dictionary.com?
“Over the past two decades, these ‘raw materials’ of language are, in essence, not only the ‘vessels’ of all communication, but
at the same time they are also becoming the currency of the digital age,” Dan Gilbert, founder of Rock Holdings and Quicken Loans,
said in a press release.
In the age of Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
answering user queries in traditional search and voice search, the Rock Holdings team hopes to replicate the success of other
digital ventures.
Detroit-based StockX, a stock exchange for consumer goods, recently
raised $44 million from Google Ventures and is averaging over $2 million of daily transaction value since its 2016 launch.
Gilbert in 2014 led a $40 million equity investment in Genius.com, a crowdsourced music encyclopedia that now boasts over 100
million monthly visitors.
IAC's Acquisitive Nature
IAC in March hired
investment bank Allen & Co. to explore a sale of Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com. The company addressed those plans in its
third-quarter shareholder letter.
“Neither business was a focus for IAC’s future, so we thought them better held in more enthusiastic hands,” IAC said in the Nov.
7 letter. “$130 million of cash in the bank will be much easier to value and can now be used to fund ambitions elsewhere.”
This deal follows IAC’s recent acquisition of Angie’s Home Services for $500 million and sale of ShoeBuy for $70 million. In
2015, IAC sold part of its stake in Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH), parent company of Tinder and Match.com, in a $400 million initial public
offering.
Investing In Detroit
The acquisition comes just one day after Gilbert’s Jack Entertainment LLC sold
Detroit’s Greektown Casino-Hotel for $1 billion.
"It frees up significant capital to invest in our large developments that we've started and some are about to start soon,"
Gilbert told the Detroit
Free Press. "We're going to focus on business development and technology, startup scene in Detroit and things like StockX and
other exciting businesses that will create jobs and excitement and attract people to the city from all over.”
Gilbert sees the potential for increased earnings for Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com in addition to opportunities to add to
Quicken Loans’ “For-More-Than-Profit Detroit Impact” initiative. The midwest giant adopted practices that support the idea of a
“different kind of capitalism, where ‘Doing Well’ and ‘Doing Good’ aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Quicken Loans’ endeavor “to invest in the quality of life of citizens on every level” has created a statewide economic impact of
$17.8 billion between 2010 and 2017, according to the company.
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