Bankrate, LLC is a consumer financial services company based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Bankrate.com, perhaps its best-known brand, is a

personal finance Personal finance is the financial management which an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future life events. When planning personal fi ...

website. As of November 8, 2017, it became a subsidiary of

Red Ventures Red Ventures is an American media company, which owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, CNET, ZDNet, The Points Guy, Healthline and Bankrate. Red Ventures focuses on sites that dispense news, advice, and reviews. The company's corporat ...

through an acquisition.

History

Bankrate was founded in 1976 by Robert K. Heady as a print publisher of the "Bank Rate Monitor." In 1996, the company began moving its business online. Today, Bankrate, Inc.'s online network includes Bankrate.com as well as CreditCards.com, Caring.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, ThePointsGuy.com, Bankrate.com.cn, CreditCards.ca, NetQuote.com, CD.com, Walla.by and Quizzle. The online network received over 150 million visits in 2010. In January 2011, Bankrate completed the acquisition of Trouve Media. In December 2011, Bankrate completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of InsWeb Corporation for $65 million in cash. In March 2012, Bankrate acquired InsuranceAgents.com. After spending 10 years as a public company traded on the NASDAQ, Bankrate was acquired in 2009 by

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...

in a transaction valued at approximately $571 million. In June 2011, Bankrate raised a total of $300 million in gross proceeds with a successful initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. In December 2011, Bankrate priced a secondary offering of 12.5 million shares at $17.50 per share. In 2012, the company purchased

The Points Guy The Points Guy (TPG) is an American travel website and blog that produces sponsored news and stories on travel, on means of accumulating and using airline points and miles, on politics and credit cards, and in particular credit card reviews ...

, a site that publishes travel-oriented articles highlighting the credit cards it sells. In 2014, Bankrate acquired Caring.com for $54 million. Kenneth S. Esterow was appointed Bankrate's President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2014, having previously served as Senior Vice President – Chief Operating Officer from September 2013 to December 2013. Bankrate was acquired by Red Ventures for $1.24 billion in November, 2017. In January 2018, Bankrate expanded into the UK with an office, editorial, and commercial teams in London, along with a localized Bankrate UK website. The site is run by Sebastian Anthony, former editor of ''

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

''. In September 2018, the former

chief financial officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

Edward J. DiMaria was found guilty of committing accounting and

securities fraud Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in lo ...

which led to over $25 million in shareholder losses. DiMaria was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and ordered to pay $21,234,214 in restitution. Former vice president of finance Hyunjin Lerner also pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Products and Services

Since the beginning, Bankrate has provided information about interest rates. Beginning in 2004, Bankrate also began offering financial education content,

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

quotes, and credit card offers. One of Bankrate's reports in 2014 determined the costs of car ownership in each state, taking into account the costs of gas and insurance, among other factors. The data suggested that Wyoming is the most expensive state in the nation to own a car.

Honors

The National Association of Real Estate Editors in 2014 named Bankrate's Mortgage blog the winner of its Best Blog and Best Column awards. In October 2012, ''Advertising Age'' ranked Bankrate as the fifth fastest-growing media company. Bankrate's "Financial Regulation, One Year Later" package earned a 2012 "Best in Business" award from the

Society of American Business Editors and Writers The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing is an association of business journalists. Originally founded as the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, in 2018, it changed its name "as part of a broader effort to embrace a g ...

(SABEW). Bankrate won two SABEW Awards in 2011: Holden Lewis' mortgage blog and Bankrate's explanatory series on financial reform were honored. Bankrate writers have won

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

s from the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

several times, most recently in 2007 for their coverage of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's rate cut. In 2008, ''Forbes'' named Bankrate #41 in its list of America's 200 Best Small Companies. Forbes previously had honored the website in its "Best of the Web" series five times between 1999 and 2004.

References

External links

*
Bankrate UK website
{{Red Ventures Red Ventures Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Palm Beach County, Florida Financial services companies established in 1976 Finance websites Financial services companies based in New York City 1999 initial public offerings 2011 initial public offerings 2009 mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions

History

Products and Services

Honors

See also

References

External links