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Jingle's free 411 service aiming for $175 million sale

Free 411 — but not for the buyers Free directory assistance has a price after all: $175 million. That's the price we hear Jingle Networks is trying to get for its 1-800-FREE-411 service, which gives free business listings in exchange for playing ads. Google, Microsoft, and AT&T are all preparing bids. But a source who has looked at Jingle's numbers say it will be lucky to get full price: "It's maybe worth $90 million." By late 2006, Jingle had raised $60 million; we hear it's since blown through that, and taken on debt besides.

The odd thing: Why would AT&T, Google, or Microsoft pay anything for Jingle? All of them have launched or acquired free directory services in the past year. AT&T is the most logical buyer, since its Ingeniu unit, which reports up to executive Ray Wilkins, actually sells ads for Jingle. Letting it go to Microsoft or Google would mean losing an outlet for its pay-per-call ads.

"I would say Google wins this one," says our source. "Google would do anything to take a stab at Ray Wilkins," a feud that dates back to AT&T's acquisition of Ingenio. That's always the most entertaining reason for an acquisition: not profit, but revenge.

2:20 PM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Owen Thomas
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4 comments

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scurvyman at 04:57 PM on 04/08/08
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Ads notwithstanding, I don't understand the point of paying millions of dollars for an inferior service that's bound to lose customers over time as the alternatives get more publicity. Two anecdotes:

- Every single one of the four or five times I've tried to use 1-800-FREE-411, its voice recognition has utterly failed to comprehend what I've been trying to say. "Did you say 'City Deli'?" "No." "I'm sorry. What listing?" "_Sushi_ Deli." "Did you say 'Sushi Jelly'?" "NO." "I'm sorry. Would you like to start over?" "_NO_." "One moment -- Let me connect you to an agent." Which not only eats up a good 75 seconds with the initial ad factored in, but it still requires a human employee on the other end anyway.

- One time I was running late and needed the address of a business in a different part of town. GOOG-411's voice recognition had no problem understanding what I was looking for. "Here, let me connect you," it told me. "Dammit," I said to my girlfriend, "I hope someone answers, or that their voicemail mentions the address." All of a sudden, I hear the little gobbledygook progress sound on the other end of the line, and then the voice says "Let me get that for you." Sure enough, seconds later I receive an SMS with the address and a link to a mobile version of a google maps page with the location of the business highlighted. Their voice recognition is good enough to OVERHEAR ME BITCHING, FIGURE OUT WHAT I WANT, AND SEND IT TO ME. And no ads.

So for a fraction of the cost of BUYING Free 411, Google could just buy more promotion for their own, vastly superior service, and steal Free 411's customers, taking away whatever ears would be listening to those ads. Seems like it would make for much cheaper revenge...
slitbong at 06:56 PM on 04/17/08
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Why is it that I've had the exact opposite experience you did? Plus, goog411 doesn't have residential listings. If anything, it's at least worthwhile to use it this april, they're having a plane ticket giveaway to anyone who uses it, at least once. Can't say no to free, hater.
slitbong at 06:57 PM on 04/17/08
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I've had the exact opposite experience from you. Who to believe, eh? At least free411 offers residential listings.

Anyway, at least it'll be worth using this april, anyone who calls might win free plane tickets.
Tech_info_guru at 03:57 PM on 04/29/08
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Actually they raised $73 Million and have little to show for it. Got decent traffic, something like 20 million calls. Tech seems like nothing but klugey off-the-shelf, easily replicated? and there is no "bidding" system for advertisers, so they apparently didn't plan for a Google purchase, or couldn't get it done? Besides, Google already did something with them and then walked and started GOOG411, didn't they? Brand name is interesting but maybe only worth $35-50 Million. Verizon's "1-800-The Info" just as good. Have they even proved they can make money on this model? Has anyone? I'm guessing they are at best zero gross margin, which isn't going to pay any overhead bills. And the service keeps getting worse, now no operators. (But 1-800-THE-INFO has operators and better voice recognition). They've had a lot of fits and starts, hiring then quickly firing, especially technology group on East Coast? Chief Architect left, not well managed in that arena? Might be worth $50-60 Million for brand and parts? This has got to be a HUGE disappointment given initial expectations.