Q&A Site Answers.com Acquired By AFCV Holdings For $127 Million In Cash

Q&A platform Answers.com has been acquired by AFCV Holdings, a portfolio company of Summit Partners, for $127 million in cash or $10.50 per share. AFCV will be delisting Answers, which was a public company, from the NASDAQ and taking the company private.

Answers operates a community-generated Q&A site at Answers.com (which had 5.5 million registered members in November) and recently hit its 10 millionth answer and launched an iPhone app, a free fast-paced trivia game dubbed blufr. And the company also began including video answers courtesy of AOL-acquired video network 5min.

Bob Rosenschein, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Answers.com says in the release: “After an exciting six years as a public company, we are very pleased to achieve considerable value for our investors. This agreement is also a positive for our community members. The integrity and commitment of our company to our products remain unchanged, as we continue our mission of creating the ultimate destination for answers.” He adds that Answers.com is the second largest Q&A site in the U.S.

Rosenschein says that the acquisition price was 33% over the company’s average closing stock price over the past 90 days. At the close of business yesterday, Answers’ stock was priced at $9.00. Of course, Answers.com’s stockholders still have to consider and vote on the proposed merger and merger agreement. But the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011.

For any Q&A site, $127 million is a large chunk of change and shows the strength of Q&A sites as acquisition targets. Rosenschein says that the mission of Answers.com, which is to provide the best Q&A product on the web, will stay the same and the company will continue to focus on product development and improvement.