Experian has agreed to sell a trio of consumer comparison shopping sites, including mortgage lead generation site LowerMyBills.com, to Ybrant Digital, Hyderabad, India, for $175 million.
A spokesman for Experian said the company purchased most of the assets sold in 2005, at a time when the use of consumer price comparison websites was in its infancy.
But in 2008, the company decided to concentrate on its strengths in the data and analytics market and since then these businesses have been considered noncore to its operations.
Another factor was the effect of the financial crisis on these kinds of websites. If anything, the crisis has made this space more competitive, the Experian spokesman said. The sites are great businesses, but they fit more closely with Ybrant's operations than with Experian's.
Suresh Reddy, chairman and CEO of Ybrant, said, "By adding these established brands to Ybrant, we will offer interesting new products, and a world class lead generation platform." Among Ybrant's current properties is Lycos.com.
Besides LowerMyBills.com, Ybrant will buy PriceGrabber and ClassesUSA.com. Experian Interactive president Steve Krenzer will run this group for the new owner when the deal is completed.
