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Internet Brands, Inc.

File:INET Logo.png
Type	Private
Industry	Internet Media
Founded	1998
Headquarters	El Segundo, California
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Robert Brisco, President and CEO
Products	Consumer websites; software applications
Revenue	USD 99.8 million (2009)
Operating income	USD 20.2 million (2009)
Net income	USD 12.4 million (2009)
Owner(s)	Hellman & Friedman
Website	InternetBrands.com

Internet Brands is a new media company based in El Segundo, California, USA that operates online media, community, and e-commerce sites in vertical markets. The company also develops and licenses internet software and social media applications.

Businesses[link]

The company operates two divisions: consumer internet and licensing.

Consumer Internet Division[link]

The consumer internet division owns and operates more than 95 websites in seven categories. The company attracts more than 62 million unique visitors per month, with 97% of the audience originating from organic, non-paid sources.^{[1] [2]} The company's strategy is to focus on specific target audiences which tend to be attractive to advertisers.^{[3] [4][5]}

On December 1, 2010, Internet Brands acquired AllLaw.com and AttorneyLocate.com, both originally founded by Arvind A. Raichur.^[6]

SEC filings indicate that approximately 70% of the company's revenues are derived from advertising from more than 40,000 accounts—most of them small and medium enterprises.

The company's portfolio of websites include many with social media features: social network services, user generated content, blogs, wikis, and internet forums,^[7][8] with over half a million registered users across forums.

Owned websites: Apartment Ratings, CarsDirect, CorvetteForum, Craftster, DoItYourself.com, DVD Talk‎, EPodunk, FitDay, FlyerTalk, Model Mayhem, Professional Pilots Rumour Network,‎ WAHM (magazine), Wikitravel.

History[link]

The company was founded in 1998 as CarsDirect.com, launched from the business incubator Idealab. The company invented a consumer-advocacy approach to selling cars "haggle-free" online, an approach it continues to employ.^[9] In 2000, Roger Penske invested in the company and joined the Board of Directors. In 2002, Time Magazine voted the site one of the 50 best in the World.^[10]

The company changed its name to Internet Brands in 2005.^[11] The company's IPO was in November 2007 on the NASDAQ exchange.^[12] INET was added to the NASDAQ Internet Index on March 22, 2010. ^[13]

Internet Brands is headquartered in El Segundo, California; Autodata is headquartered in London, Ontario.

Internet Brands agreed to be acquired for $640 mln by the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman in September 2010.^{[14] [15]}

vBulletin criticism[link]

In October 2009 Internet Brands changed the pricing structure for its vBulletin software, prompting complaints from registered users on the official forums. According to The Register those who complained were then banned from both the forums and from receiving support & updates, despite still having valid licences for the product.^[16] Internet Brands defended their position to The Register in a separate article; however a later update to the same article stated that at least some of Internet Brands' claims were false.^[17]

vBulletin lawsuits[link]

In October 2010, Internet Brands announced that it would file a lawsuit against the XenForo team claiming copyright infringement; specifically that code in XenForo was based on vBulletin code, breach of contract, and engaging in unfair business practices.^[18]

In November 2010, Internet Brands sued Kier Darby, a lead developer of XenForo, who had previously served as a lead developer for Internet Brands' vBulletin, claiming that Kier had not returned confidential information from Internet Brands regarding the vBulletin software.

The XenForo team has denied the claims.^[19]

References[link]