Lexico Publishing Group, LLC and Answer Corp have agreed on the sales price for Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. When the sale is complete, Lexico will be $100 million richer. Answer will own domain properties which attracted 11.5 million unique visitors for the month of June 2007.

Over 85% of this traffic comes direct from end users or from people searching the word "dictionary" in search engines. The addition of these domain properties are expected increase Answer's traffic to over 22.5 million unique users each month and will enhance Answer's ability to reach Internet users without dependence on search engines.

"The acquisition of Lexico is a transformative event for us," explained Robert S. Rosenschein, Chairman and CEO of Answers Corporation. "We are excited about applying our experience in monetization to significantly increase Lexico's 2008 revenues and EBITDA. Lexico's suite of popular brands, steady direct traffic and loyal users are valuable assets that we believe will reduce our products' reliance on search engine-driven traffic. Post-transaction, we estimate that over 70% of our total traffic will now be direct from end users or people searching specifically for the term 'dictionary' in search engines. Our combined size and available ad inventory should provide greater exposure among online media buyers, which we expect will lead to increased advertising sales."

According to the press release the final sale is still contingent upon usual closing conditions and financing. Closing is scheduled for fall 2007.

Answers anticipates using the new domain name properties to cross-promote other Answers' sites.

Dictionary is the second most generic search term in search engines. Lexico's domain properties ranked #3 in the Education-Reference category in June 2007, Answers's ranked #4. With Answers taking over Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, Answers is expected to win the #2 ranking with Wikipedia the only one in front.