IAC’s Ask Purchases Sendori

Ask Sponsored Listings, a division of IAC, purchases direct navigation firm Sendori.

Ask Sponsored Listings, a division of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI), has purchased direct navigation monetization firm Sendori for an undisclosed amount.

Sendori offers an alternative to domain parking that automatically redirects type-in traffic rather than requiring a user to click on a sponsored link. For example, if you type in a car insurance domain name that would typically show a parked page full of links, with Sendori it may be forwarded directly to GEICO.

Sendori has 130,000 advertisers and access to 33 million unique visitors per month. The firm has 11 people counting contractors, and 10 of them will be going to IAC.

I’ve been skeptical of Sendori since it launched, especially since a similar service from advertising.com failed. But that service was launched ahead of domain parking went mainstream, and Sendori was able to attach itself to domain parking firms by offering an alternative monetization. Sendori would serve one of its redirects only if it would generate a higher RPM than a parked page for the domain owner.

Sendori has also been used for affiliate arbitrage, allowing people to buy traffic and forward it as a referrer to sites such as eBay.

The firm raised capital from First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Maples Investments and Felicis Ventures. It was founded in 2006.

This buyout is a good sign for the domain name industry and adds further credibility to the direct navigation channel. There’s another lesson in this for domain firms: file patents on your core technology. It makes you a better buyout target.