Over the next few days, onlookers shouldn’t be surprised if the mix of questions on Answers.com begins to favor inquiries of the "what kind of ____ should I buy?" variety. Fans may have some extra money coming to them, as Answers.com announced this morning that it’s being acquired for $127 million.
AFCV Holdings, which is controlled by Summit Partners, is the organization that’s making the purchase. And Summit Partners, if you’re interested, is a "growth equity investor" that’s backed Avast, B&W Loudspeakers, Belkin, Champion Windows, InstallShield, M-Audio, McAfee, Postini, and Tivoli Audio in the past.
Summit Partners appears to have a lot of faith in Answers.com, too. Bob Rosenschein, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Answers.com, explained in a statement, "The acquisition price of $10.50 per share represents a significant cash premium of approximately 33% over our 90-day volume-weighted average closing stock price."
Rosenschein said as a result, "This is a great outcome for our shareholders. After an exciting six years as a public company, we are very pleased to achieve considerable value for our investors."
One other interesting point about all this: the move occurred despite all the recent talk about Quora. So presumably Summit Partners doesn’t see the Q&A startup (or Facebook Questions, for that matter) as too much of a threat.
The acquisition should close sometime in the second quarter of this year.