Resource Nation Acquires Business.com Brand, Assets (With A Little Help From JMI Equity)

Resource Nation today announced that it has acquired the brand and associated assets of Business.com, an online marketplace for business-to-business solutions.

Growth equity firm JMI Equity provided an undisclosed amount of funding in support of the transaction – terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Resource Nation CEO Ryan Peddycord will continue to lead the company with a combination of Business.com and Resource Nation management teams. The company says it will retain a number of current and former Business.com sales and account managers, as well as some other ‘key employees’.

For your background: Business.com has quite a history. Most notably, it was acquired by R.H. Donnelley Corporation for $350 million almost four years ago. R.H. Donnelley filed for bankruptcy two years later.

This acquisition, meanwhile, makes perfect sense. Resource Nation is essentially a lead generation company for all things B2B, and boasts about 10,000 advertising partners already.

Business purchasers will now have the ability to obtain price quotes using Resource Nation’s core services, and DIY purchasers will be able to access Business.com’s directory to find vendors that make sense for their business.

Another footnote in the fascinating (IMHO) history of one of the most valuable domain names on the Internet.