Ask.com completes Lexico acquisition

It's now confirmed that Ask.com has completed its acquisition of Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.

The search engine, a wholly owned subsidiary of InterActiveCorp, is ranked fourth among its competitors. The all-cash deal was announced in May with Ask.com saying that the acquisition would increase its unique monthly users by 11 percent to 145 million.

"The combination of Lexico's strong growth and assets with Ask.com's industry-leading search experience significantly expands our audience reach, and aligns perfectly with our customers' needs," said Jim Safka, CEO of Ask.com.

According to Lexico, Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com had more than 28 million unique visitors in March altogether.