Anyone have any idea about the FindLaw announcement coming tomorrow?
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https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thomson-reuters-enters-into-definitive-agreement-to-sell-findlaw-business-to-internet-brands-pending-regulatory-approvals-302265697.html
I heard the same thing. The whole business including Super Lawyers, all the directories, 7K websites, etc.
They claim everyone will not be impacted, but that is total BS. That is the whole point of a merger/acquisition. To find redundancies and become more efficient (i.e. reduce costs).
So while there may be little headcount changes in the beginning, they certainly will cull the herd once everything is buttoned up and things are merged together.
I believe the buyer, Internet Brands, completely fired all of the field staff for the other directories they bought in the past. So there may be a grace period for the FL staff, but I doubt it will be longer than 12 months after close of sale.
There will be BIG changes that will come from this. I wonder if this sale will actually go through. This will consolidate the market to almost 100% into Internet Brands hands. Avvo fell off the map when it was bought by them and has not recovered especially when you look at just the lawyer directory parts of the site (this is where the money is). I am not saying the they will tank these sites too, but they do not have a history of success. Just do a search for "personal injury attorney (any city)" and see if you see anything besides a FindLaw directory in the top 10.
They will have Nolo, Avvo, Martindale Hubbell, Lawyers.com, FindLaw, Super Lawyers, Law Info, Abogado.
This just leaves Lawyer.com, HG, Justia, and Legal Zoom. And frankly only really Justia shows up at all organically sometimes
My heart goes out to all of the impacted. Remember to put you and your families needs first. Its always be to look for a job while you have one.
Findlaw has been sold off