New York Times closes on $300M sale of About Group

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times has completed its $300 million sale of The About Group to Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp.

IAC, which operates online businesses including Newsweek, The Daily Beast and dating site Match.com, announced the deal last month.

About.com provides information on a wide variety of topics and also operates ConsumerSearch.com and Calorie-Count.com. The site’s content is written by paid experts known as guides.

The New York Times said Monday that it anticipates receiving about $290 million from the sale and plans to use those funds for general corporate purposes.

IAC says The About Group will become part of its search and applications segment.

The New York Times Co. purchased About.com in 2005 for roughly $410 million. About.com has suffered in the past year because of a change in the way Google handles search results. The change made About.com content difficult to find.

The New York Times Co.’s stock added 6 cents to $9.64 in midday trading, while IAC/InterActiveCorp’s stock fell 71 cents to $52.51.

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