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About, Inc. to Acquire Calorie-Count.com
NEW YORK-- Sept. 14, 2006--About.com, a top 10 content site and a part of The New York Times Company, announced today that it has acquired Calorie-Count.com, a site that offers weight loss tools and nutritional information, from AeroDiet.com, LLC. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
"About.com has consistently been the second largest health channel and the fourth largest food channel on the Web," said Janet L. Robinson, president and CEO of The New York Times Company. "This acquisition will further expand About.com's leadership in these two key verticals, providing wonderful new content and functionality for our users. Additionally, Calorie-Count.com offers a significant opportunity to attract highly sought advertising in the health and nutrition categories."
Founded in May 2003, Calorie-Count.com allows users to get to the core of weight loss, managing their calorie intake. It provides nutritional information and other tools that allow users to track their weight, food intake and physical activity. The site also contains social community forums and personal blogs, which help to attract new users and to increase time spent on the site. As of August 2006, Calorie-Count.com generates 24 million page views per month from 464,108 unique visitors, with an annual growth rate of more than 125% in both according to internal data. The founders of Calorie-Count.com, Erik Fantasia and Igor Lebovic, will become employees of About.com and report to Marjorie Martin, general manager, About.com Health.
In 2006, About.com has added 48 new topic sites and August page views were up an estimated 14% versus the same month last year (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2006). In the second quarter of 2006, About.com's total revenues climbed 62.7% compared with a very strong second quarter a year ago. About.com currently has approximately 44 million monthly page views from its Health and Food channels (Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2006).
About About.com
Founded in 1996, About.com is the leading online source for original consumer
information and advice and was acquired in March 2005 by The New York Times
Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2005 revenues of $3.4 billion,
which includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston
Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, nine network-affiliated television stations,
two New York City radio stations and 35 Web sites, including NYTimes.com,
Boston.com and About.com. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society
by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and
entertainment.
Press Contacts:
For About.com: Lisa Langsdorf, 212-204-1467 llangsdorf@about.com