Rakuten, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4755) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LinkShare Corporation, a privately held New York-based performance- based marketing firm, for a cash purchase price of approximately $425 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed within four to six weeks.
We all know LinkShare as a major player in the affiliate space, providing third party tools and services to merchants and affiliates. WebmasterWorld has a more detailed discussion going on about this now, Search Engine Watch Forums just put up a thread on this topic.