Internet Brands started as a website for buying a car and ended up owning WebMD. In between, it bought and built hundreds of focused sites and communities on cars, home improvement, travel, health and law. Each one was small. Together they drew a large audience and steady advertising. The company began as CarsDirect, and it went public in November 2007, just before the financial crisis.

When CarsDirect Changed Course

CarsDirect was started at Bill Gross's Idealab in 1998, with Scott Painter. It was one of the early bets that people would buy big-ticket items online. When that market proved hard, the company changed course. It began buying established enthusiast sites and forums cheaply. Then it ran them on shared technology and sold advertising across the network. Each site already had a loyal, specific audience.

The Buyer of WebMD

Internet Brands priced its IPO at $8 a share in November 2007 on the Nasdaq, below its planned range of $10 to $12. In 2010 Hellman & Friedman bought the company for about $640 million. KKR later acquired it. The company kept growing by buying communities and specialist sites. In 2017 Internet Brands bought WebMD, another company in this directory, and became a major force in online health.

Cover: Chelsea Shop, James McNeill Whistler. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a shop front (a network of niche sites).