Well, three weeks ago I said that a shopping engine should acquire Jellyfish. With shopping being one of its four core focuses for search going forward, Microsoft stepped up to the plate and made the purchase.

As the release (appropriately done through the Live Search site) explains: “Jellyfish has done some really innovative work in comparative shopping engines. We think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search.”

While not overtly saying it, InfoWorld discusses Jellyfish’s pay per action advertising program as part of the allure of the business.

While neither company released financial details of the acquisition, The Wisconsin State Journal seems to have scooped everyone with the following. You can do some back of the hand calculations to determine a rough estimate of the valuation.

“The company raised $5 million worth of financing last October…” [the second round]

“Brian and Mark did a tremendous job, ” said Ken Johnson, Kegonsa ’s managing director. Initial investors “made about 15 times our money in 14 months, ” Johnson said; second-round participants made about twice their investment.

Congrats to the Jellyfish team!

Once again, a venture backed shopping comparison engine has a successful exit:
Jango acquired by Excite ($35m)
Junglee acquired by Amazon ($250m)
C2b acquired by Inktomi Product Search ($90m)
MySimon acquired by CNET ($700m)
Cadabra acquired by Overture ($250m)
Kelkoo acquired by Yahoo ($579m)
PriceRunner acquired by Valueclick ($29m)
Dealtime/Epinions formed SDC acquired by eBay ($500m)
Bizrate renamed Shopzilla acquired by EW Scripps ($500m)
PriceGrabber acquired by Experian ($485m)
NexTag acquired by Providence Equity Partners ($833m - for 66% of the company)
MeziMedia (owner of Smarter.com) acquired by ValueClick (up to $352m)
Jellyfish acquired by Microsoft (aprx. $50m)

Related Posts:
-Thoughts on Jellyfish - It’s All About The Smack - September 9, 2007
-Hearst Buys Kaboodle - August 8, 2007
-Jellyfish - The Good, Bad, and The Ugly - July 2, 2006