Idealab company bulks up

DoItYourself.com, one of the more popular self help Web sites, is being purchased by El Segundo-based Internet Brands Inc., which is home to Autos.com, BestRate.com, CarsDirect.com, RealEstateABC.com, WikiTravel.com and lots of others. Terms not disclosed. In case Internet Brands doesn't ring a bell, the name Bill Gross might. Yeah, the same Bill Gross who founded the Internet incubator Idealab in the late 1990s, only to come crashing down when the dot-com bubble burst (remember eToys?). Well, Internet Brands is the offspring of Idealabs - it was called CarsDirect in those days and at last check its revenues were over the $300 million mark. CEO Bob Brisco says it's profitable - and it's easy to see why. These consumer specialty categories are where advertisers have been going on the Internet. I mean, who else but car buyers are going to check out CarsDirect? Most of the sites have been developed in-house but Brisco has not been afraid to take the acquisition route (it's been financing these deals largely through its own revenues). Might an IPO be in the offing? That's been the buzz for some months, and the purchase of DoItYourself provides more fodder for the speculation.