There’s a fair amount of commotion surrounding Confused.com; the site, which is “a one-stop shop to help you find out whether you can save money on your car or home insurance this year,” may be accepting acquisition bids of well over $1 billion. And a potential buyer may be InterActiveCorp, the owner of Ask.com.
Confused is currently owned by Admiral, but, according to a statement given to the Financial Times, “Admiral notes the recent press speculation regarding Confused.com and confirms that it has received approaches from several parties regarding the business.”
“The group is reviewing its options in relation to Confused which include retention of the business or a partial or full disposal,” the statement continued, but, “[t]here can be no certainty that any transaction will take place.”
Still, in the traditional anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better corporate spirit, any interest on Ask’s (owner’s) part could make Google, Yahoo, and/or Microsoft think about buying Confused. Stress on “could.”
Confused is, to be honest, not particularly attractive (from an aesthetic standpoint), but it’s apparently quite the little moneymaker. The BBC reports that Admiral, as a whole, “[l]ast year . . . reported profits before tax of £147.3m, of which £23m came from Confused.com.” Hence the bids of up to 700 million pounds.
Will Confused be sold? Won’t it? And what role will Ask (or any other search engine) play in the acquisition? All right – you knew this pun had to come sometime – but this really is all very confusing.
