InfoSpace taking new direction with TaxACT acquisition

The  Internet company known best for its Dogpile metasearch site  is digging into its big pile of cash  to buy TaxACT, the Cedar Rapids-based online tax software company.

InfoSpace Inc. of Bellevue, Wash.,  announced a  definitive agreement Monday to buy TaxACT  for the same $287.5 million cash price offered by H & R Block. It took swift advantage of the November 2011 court ruling blocking H & R Block's acquisition of 2nd Story Software - TaxACT's operating company - because the deal announced in late 2010  would have eliminated too much of the competition remaining in the tax software market..

It's a new direction for InfoSpace, the company's new CEO, Bill Ruckelshaus said in a telephone interview Monday. He said the company isn't looking to inject TaxACT into its online search business or vice versa. Rather, he said, InfoSpace wanted to find a new “growth platform” that would boost shareholder value with some of the $254 million in cash it was sitting on at the end of its last fiscal year from selling business units in 2008.

Read more at Business380.com