Diller’s firm to buy Ask Jeeves

NEW YORK — Barry Diller’s electronic-commerce company IAC/InterActiveCorp is buying Ask Jeeves Inc., the Web-search service, for $1.85 billion, the companies announced Monday.

The deal would put Diller’s company into the highly competitive and rapidly growing business of Internet search, which is dominated by big players like Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN service.

IAC holds a collection of electronic transaction businesses, including the travel site Expedia, the Home Shopping Network, Citysearch, Ticketmaster and the online dating service Match.com. IAC/InterActiveCorp is planning to spin off its travel business into a separate entity.

Unlike search engines that look up keywords and phrases, Ask Jeeves is designed to find answers to questions written in natural language.

“We believe that in the future (Ask Jeeves) has the potential to become one of the great brands on the Internet and beyond, and by beyond we mean in wireless, in the search for anything on any device,” Diller said.

The companies said they would integrate IAC’s brands into the Ask Jeeves service; enhance Ask Jeeves’ local search capabilities and promote the Ask Jeeves service on IAC sites.

Ask Jeeves says it has 42 million unique monthly users in the United States, while IAC has 44 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.