InfoSpace Gets Into E-Commerce

Gregory T. Huang5/11/10

Bellevue, WA-based InfoSpace, the online metasearch and discovery company, said today it has acquired the assets of Mercantila, an online retail and e-commerce company based in San Francisco, for $8 million in cash plus up to $5.9 million in “certain liabilities.” InfoSpace (NASDAQ GS: INSP) says acquiring Mercantila’s e-commerce software and 200-plus specialty stores on the Web will help it expand its audience beyond search and “become a strong e-commerce player.” Mercantila is now a wholly owned subsidiary of InfoSpace run by Nikhil Behl, the former chief merchandising officer at Mercantila.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's National IT Editor and the Editor of Xconomy Boston. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com, call him at 617-252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at @gthuang.