Interesting news came out over the weekend stating that Experian was in the market to sell it’s comparison shopping site, Pricegrabber. The article also claimed that Experian is expected to cut 100’s of jobs in Britain because of their losses. The sale and overall cuts are not surprising.

What interesting about this article is that Pricegrabber has actually been doing well. Pricegrabber’s revenue rose by 9% in the fourth quarter while Experian as a whole had a decline in revenue of 2%. Why would they put this channel on the auction block and not another? I haven’t seen the actual financial reports for Experian, but every article that is posted about the company claims that Experians losses were all do to the U.S. mortgage crisis and their lead generation website LowerMyBills. Both Pricegrabber and LowerMyBills were purchased in 2005 and were both based out los Angeles, CA. Pricegrabber was sold to Experian for $500 million and LMB went for a cool $330 million.

I think there is a couple of things we can look at here. First, does Experian believe that the comparison shopping model is dead? What do they see beyond the positive revenue number that would spur a sale? Second, what are their thoughts on the lead generation model? Their choice to sell Pricegrabber over the suffering LowerMyBills is very interesting. Do they see a correction coming? It doesn’t make any sense to me, but we will have to wait and see. It is possible that they maybe looking to unload both divisions.

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