BankRate Acquires Bankaholic For Up To $15 Million
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
Financial info site BankRate is expanding its financial product listings, as it's acquiring Bankaholic, which provides info on deposits, savings accounts, and money market accounts. The company will pay $12.4 million up front, with another $2.5 million possible earnout over the next 12 months. Bankaholic's sole employee John Wu will assist in the transition and remain for an unspecified period of time. BankRate, of course, is exposed to some of the nastier aspects of the economy, though it's held up fairly well and continued to grow. It's also made acquisitions in order to diversify its range of financial productslast December it acquired Savingforcollege.com and Nationwide Card Services for at least $29 million. The company has also seen competition from TheStreet (NSDQ: TSCM), which acquired BankingMyWay, a much smaller site with a similar service. A conference call will be held at 4:30 PM ET (details in the Release).
By Joseph Weisenthal