A Handful of Magic Beans?

Ask Jeeves Acquires Bloglines

Oakland, CA – February 8, 2005 – Ask Jeeves®, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ), a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today announced it has acquired Trustic, Inc., the company that owns and operates Bloglines (www.bloglines.com). Bloglines is the world’s most popular free online service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing RSS feeds, blogs and rich web content. Bloglines will continue to operate as an independent brand in the Ask Jeeves portfolio and retain its name and unique URL: www.bloglines.com.

Ask Jeeves bought Bloglines? With what?

(And is there any truth in the rumor that LookSmart, Ltd., is in negotiations with Nick Denton to acquire Gawker Media in exchange for all future recording royalties from Evan Thornley's garage band?)