Press Release


Company Profile
Company Web Site

Answers.com Acquires KnowItAll, Inc. Creating Leading Player in Web-enabled Customer Interaction Space

PASADENA, Calif. – October 25, 2000 –Answers.com, Inc.â today announced the acquisition of Austin, Texas-based KnowItAll, Inc., developers of real-time communication and collaboration technology initially targeting online customer service.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition gives Answers.com ( http://www.answers.com ) a competitive edge in the Web-enabled customer interaction (WCI) space by adding text chat, audio, video, email management, remote application control, white boarding and a media “normalization engine,” which allows messages and responses to questions from online site visitors to be handled in a single interface regardless of the initial type of inquiry.

Answers.com CEO Bill Fogg said, “This acquisition strengthens Answers.com’s positioning as the best solution for handling online customer interaction.  Our customers have been asking for a wider range of products that seamlessly integrate with our best-of-breed self-service question and answer functionality.  This acquisition enables us to acquire customers who want the simplicity of working with a single Web-enabled customer interaction technology provider and allows us to offer that technology as either an ASP or premise-based solution.”

Since its founding in February 1999, KnowItAll ( http://www.knowitall.com ) has developed HumanHelpÔ, a complete online customer service management environment that seamlessly integrates media-rich interactions, a heuristic knowledge base, and a full set of supervisory and training tools.  The HumanHelp solution fully addresses the needs and expectations of consumers who need real-time access to the most qualified customer service representative available to handle their request.  
Among the staff who are joining Answers.com is Carl Samos, the co-founder and CTO of KnowItAll, who said, “Online businesses must be able to support and collaborate effectively with their customers to succeed.  The combination of KnowItAll  and Answers.com brings to the table a technically superior and complete solution that will significantly improve the way customer service is experienced over the Internet.”

Samos’ credits include lead developer for the Computational Modeling Lab, which was dedicated to creating applications such as iwgAIDS, the leading tool for modeling the AIDS pandemic worldwide.  He later joined the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), ultimately leading the development of Mosaic, the famous World Wide Web browser.  The most notable company to license Mosaic was Microsoft, which utilized the software code to create Internet Explorer.

Prior to founding KnowItAll, Samos participated in the start-up and technology development of pcOrder.com, a leading electronic technology provider for the computer industry.  pcOrder (NASDAQ: PCOR; www.pcOrder.com) made a successful initial public offering in February 1999.

Fogg said, “The opportunity to work with proven technology giants like Carl Samos and his team will ensure Answers.com’s technology stays at the forefront of the customer relationship management marketplace.”

Answers.com will continue to be headquartered in Pasadena, while the Austin office will serve as a sales and development office for Web-enabled customer interaction Technology.

About Answers.com

Answers.com ( http://www.answers.com ) is a provider of online customer service tools that help businesses of all sizes manage inquiry volume, minimize costs and maximize customer satisfaction. Through their advanced question and answer technology, Answers.com provides the best tools for online customer service support. Simply put, it allows any company’s Web site visitors quickly find real answers to their questions - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Current customers include GE Plastics (www.askedison.com), PE Care ( http://www.pecare.com ), homeDiscover ( http://www.homediscover.com ), !hey Software ( http://www.heyinc.com ), CareBar ( http://www.carebar.org ) and NetPreSys ( http://www.netpresys.com ).

Established in 1996 by idealab!, Answers.com was recently acquired and relaunched by Net Shepherd, Inc. ( http://www.netshepherd.com ) to target the business-to-business market.  NSI is traded on the Canadian Venture Exchange under the symbol WEB.  


 
Editorial Contact:
Jennifer Sanchez
Answers.com
626.817.5652
jennifer@answers.com
 
top of page