have a close connection with its subject . it may require cleanup to comply with wikipedia s content policies particularly neutral point of view . please discuss further on the talk page . october 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message blucora type public corporation traded as nasdaq bcor founded march 1996 ; 20 years ago 1996 03 as infospace inc. headquarters bellevue washington usa founder s punam agrawal glenn byrd jean remy facq anu jain naveen jain sanjay kohli kevin marcus charles mathieu chris matty richard openheimer key people john s. clendening president and ceo services metasearch and private label internet search tax preparation services revenue 228.8 million for fy2011 1 subsidiaries howstuffworks monoprice website http www.blucora.com blucora formerly infospace inc. is a provider of internet related services most commonly being search engines . infospace changed its name to blucora and nasdaq symbol from insp to bcor on june 7 2012 . this event reflected the company s change as the owner of two online businesses after its acquisition of taxact in january 2012 and distinguishes the parent company from its search business operating unit which is called infospace . 2 blucora s infospace business provides metasearch and private label internet search services for consumers and online search and monetization solutions to a network of more than 100 partners worldwide . infospace s main metasearch site is dogpile ; its other brands are webcrawler and metacrawler . 3 blucora s taxact subsidiary offers online tax preparation services . founded in 1998 and made by 2nd story software in the 2005 tax season taxact became the first to offer free federal tax software and free e file to all u.s. taxpayers . 4 contents 1 history 2 shareholder lawsuit 3 new management and company restructuring 4 current ceo recent acquisitions and change of company name 5 references history edit the company was founded as infospace in march 1996 by naveen jain after he left microsoft . he served as ceo until 2000 . the company which started with six employees 5 built an online yellow pages service to be funded through advertising . a set of simple chat rooms based on html and meta refresh were also available on the site . infospace went public on december 15 1998 . the company raised 75 million in the offering . 6 in july 2000 infospace acquired go2net . after the merger go2net ceo russell horowitz became president of infospace . 7 also in 2000 infospace used a controversial accounting method to report 46 million in profits when in fact it had lost 282 million . company executives skirted sec trading restrictions to sell large blocks of their personal stock . 8 jain resumed the role of ceo in 2001 9 but was forced out by infospace s board as chairman and ceo in december 2002 . 10 by june 2002 the company s stock price which reached 1 305 in march 2000 11 had dropped to 2.67 . 5 on august 1 2013 blucora bought monoprice in an all cash transaction . 12 on april 21 2014 discovery communications announced that they had sold howstuffworks to blucora for 45 million . 13 june 2 2014 blucora completes the purchase of howstuffworks . shareholder lawsuit edit in a shareholder lawsuit filed in 2003 a lower court federal judge ruled that former infospace ceo naveen jain had purchased shares of infospace in violation of six month short swing insider trading rules and issued a 247 million judgment against him the largest award of its kind at that time . 14 while on appeal in 2005 jain settled the case for 105 million while denying liability . jain s attempt in further litigation against his former lawyers for the loss was dismissed . 15 16 17 new management and company restructuring edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message in december 2002 jim voelker took over naveen jain s role as chairman ceo and president of infospace . voelker quickly shut down or sold many of infospace s 12 businesses and focused on five core segments . in 2003 infospace acquired moviso from vivendi universal net usa . moviso provides ringtones wallpapers and video games usually accessed through a mobile handset enabling wireless carriers to charge a fee for these downloads . in early march 2003 infospace sued jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements in his role at newly founded intelius . in an interview after the suit was filed jain said the lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for jain s whistle blowing . in april 2003 he resigned from the infospace board . in 2004 infospace acquired switchboard which is now owned by verizon spin off idearc media and overshadowed by idearc s superpages . it also moved into the mobile games space acquiring atlas mobile iomo and elkware . infospace reported 249 million in revenue in 2004 up 89 percent from the previous year and more than jain ever achieved in the company s dot com heyday . 18 september 2006 infospace released news that a carrier partner would be working directly with major recording labels thus negatively impacting their core business . following this carrier label arrangement infospace sold the moviso mobile content business to funmobility atlas mobile studio to twistbox and iomo re emerged as finblade . the remaining portions of infospace mobile were acquired by motricity in december 2007 . between may 2007 and january 2008 the company paid shareholders 500 million in special dividends or 15.30 share.infospace.com began redirecting to superpages in 2009 . superpages had acquired infospace s directory services in 2007 . in 2008 industry analysts believed infospace was gradually dismantling itself . in february 2009 jim voelker retired as ceo and president yet remained on the company s board as chairman . from february 2009 to november 2010 will lansing served as president and ceo of infospace . under lansing s leadership infospace started an online auction website called haggle.com . a year later it shut down the website and sold its assets to bigdeal.com . current ceo recent acquisitions and change of company name edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message blucora s current president and ceo is william j. ruckelshaus . ruckelshaus was appointed to this role in november 2010 after serving as a board member since may 2007 . in january 2012 the company acquired taxact and to help differentiate its name from its new purchase and that of its infospace search unit it rebranded its name to blucora and its nasdaq ticker symbol changed to bcor on june 7 2012 . references edit 2011 annual report . infospace . retrieved april 23 2012 . http investor.blucora.com secfiling.cfm filingid 1181431 12 33701 & cik 1068875 our business archived blucora.com http www.taxact.com company company aboutus.asp a b heath david march 6 2005 . dot con job part 1 dubious deals how infospace took its investors for a ride business & technology the seattle times . retrieved 13 sep 2013 . a fine ipo for infospace from wired infospace to buy go2net to expand content delivery heath david march 7 2005 . dot con job part 2 cashing out when times got tough execs hid troubles dumped stock . the seattle times . retrieved 13 sep 2013 . infospace inc form 8 k received 01 23 2001 17 15 42 . google.brand.edgar online.com . retrieved june 7 2011 . infospace severs final ties with founder jain . puget sound business journal . april 28 2003 . retrieved june 7 2011 . the two faces of infospace 1998 2001 miller ben august 1 2013 . blucora buying monoprice for 180m . puget sound business journal . retrieved 21 december 2013 . discovery sells howstuffworks at 82 % loss after seven years . bloomberg . april 21 2014 . retrieved april 22 2014 . heath david august 23 2003 . ex infospace chief ordered to pay 247 million penalty . seattle times . retrieved february 24 2010 . heath david ; pian chan sharon ; dot con job part 3 the aftermath unusual ally sec the seattle times 2005 court turns down appeal from infospace founder the seattle times march 9 2009 . http www.sec.gov archives edgar data 1068875 000119312504219392 dex991.htm heath david march 7 2005 . dot con job part 3 the aftermath new management tighter focus finally put infospace in the black . the seattle times . retrieved 13 sep 2013 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title blucora & oldid 739590812 categories 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