IAC/InteractiveCorp’s Chairman and CEO, Barry Diller sent the search world a wake up call Monday morning as the King of Content announced his $1.85 billion acquisition of Ask Jeeves, the 9th largest global web property.

Ask Jeeves is the “I’ve got a question that needs answering” search destination that relies on natural language processing. The company generated 1.5 million searches in Q4 with $42.50 revenue per query. The company tried and failed to launch an enterprise search offering in early 2000.

The news of Ask Jeeves acquisition wasn’t a big surprise but the whopping $1.85 billion price tag was. Shares of the Ask (NASDAQ: ASKJ) soared 16% higher in early Monday afternoon trading. Based on IAC's closing stock price on Friday, the deal values Ask Jeeves at $28.24 a share, a premium of approximately 17% to its Friday closing price.

IAC’s online portfolio is a who’s who of destination sites including the travel site Expedia, the Home Shopping Network, Citysearch, Ticketmaster and the online dating service Match.com to name just a few. Mr. Diller’s lastest acquisition also includes the Teoma search technology.

Mr. Diller’s message was clear in an earlier audiocast with investors and analysts: “Global search is the gateway to everything. We now have in one place all the pieces we need however [the market] develops," Diller said. "Throughout IAC, its sites and the technology that powers all of them, we have all the ingredients and resources to pull everything together if that's what the market demands."

Links about Ask Jeeves sale:
Official Press Release
Google Links