Ask Jeeves Acquires Excite Europe

Ask Jeeves Acquires Excite Europe
Acquisition Unifies Excite Brands in U.S. and Europe, and Accelerates the
Company's International Growth Strategy 


OAKLAND, Calif., May 20  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ask Jeeves, Inc., a leading
provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising
services, today announced the acquisition of Excite Italia B.V., the operator
of Excite Europe, a network of pan-European portal properties, from Tiscali,
S.p.A.  Ask Jeeves acquired the U.S.-operated Excite.com portal in March 2004.

"This deal is a next step in Ask Jeeves' European expansion strategy," said
Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves, Inc. "Access to Excite's pan-European
operational infrastructure and market knowledge will accelerate our European
growth initiative and provide an instant revenue stream from additional users
and advertisers."

The acquisition of Excite Europe will extend Ask Jeeves' ownership of the
Excite brand beyond the United States, giving the Company ownership of Excite's
Internet domains throughout Europe as well as control of existing portal
offerings in several major European markets including Spain, Italy, France, UK,
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. The acquisition provides immediate access
to a wealth of resources in the European portal market in terms of users,
operations, market knowledge and revenue streams. Ask Jeeves will also have the
ability to extend its leading search technology to Excite Europe users.

Excite is a well-known name on the Internet, offering search and portal
services since 1995 and recognized for pioneering the customizable start page.
Excite will remain a separate brand under Ask Jeeves Inc., with operations
continuing out of Excite Europe's headquarters in Rome, Italy.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Ask Jeeves does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on 2005
revenues or earnings per share, and does not expect the acquisition to affect
Ask Jeeves' financial guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter
earnings announcement on April 27, 2005.

Cautionary Note regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements include all statements regarding the impact of Excite Europe on Ask
Jeeves' revenues, earnings per share and guidance, and all other statements
regarding future features, functionality and anticipated benefits of Ask Jeeves
product and service offerings. Actual results, developments or events may
differ materially from those referenced in forward-looking statements. Factors
that may cause actual results, developments or events to differ from the
related forward-looking statements are described in the risk factors described
in Ask Jeeves' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004,
subsequently filed Form 10-Qs and other public filings made with the SEC, all
of which are available without charge at http://www.sec.gov/.  Ask Jeeves
undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements for future
events, circumstances or developments.

About Ask Jeeves, Inc.

As the 6th largest global web property (ComScore Media Metrix, March 2005), Ask
Jeeves Inc. delivers world-class information retrieval products through a
diverse portfolio of Web sites, portals and downloadable applications. Ask
Jeeves' search and search-based portal brands include: Ask Jeeves (Ask.com,
Ask.co.uk and es.Ask.com), the Ask Jeeves Japan joint venture (Ask.jp), Ask
Jeeves for Kids (AJKids.com), Bloglines (bloglines.com), Excite (excite.com),
iWon (iwon.com), My Way (myway.com) and Fun Web Products (funwebproducts.com).
Additionally, Ask Jeeves owns the differentiated search technology Teoma, as
well as natural language processing, portal and ad- serving technologies. Ask
Jeeves generates revenue from advertisers seeking to reach the company's
broad-based online audience. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves has been a publicly
traded company on the Nasdaq National Market since July 1999. Its headquarters
are located in Oakland, California, with offices throughout the United States,
as well as in Europe and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.ask.com/
or call 510-985-7400.

NOTE:  Ask Jeeves, AJinteractive, Ask.com, Teoma, My Way, My Search, My Web
Search, iWon, Excite and Bloglines are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Ask Jeeves, Inc. 

DATASOURCE: Ask Jeeves, Inc.



CONTACT:  Colby Zintl, Ask Jeeves Corporate Communications,

[phone], or ; or Darcy Cobb of Dotted Line

Communications, [phone], or , for Ask Jeeves,

Inc.



Web site:  http://www.ask.com/ 

Copyright