Losing its independence on Independence Day, Lexico is now part of the Ask.com family, as IAC’s (NSDQ: IACI) portal completes its purported $100 million cash acquisition of the Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com operator. Announcing the completion, which had been expected in Q3, Ask.com Jim Safka: “The combination… significantly expands our audience reach, and aligns perfectly with our customers’ needs.”

The Long Beach, Calif.-based company was founded in 1995 by CEO Brian Kariger and Daniel Fierro. Both will be staying on for the integration into Ask.com. Its iconic domains come with a serious amount of traffic, increasing the Ask Network’s traffic by 11 percent to 145 million-plus uniques. Neither party disclosed the price when they announced the deal on May 15 - estimates came from a source familiar with the situation.

• Lexico, Dictionary.com Being Acquired By Ask.com; Price In $100 Million Range