Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
Bankrate history
Bankrate company history timeline
Bankrate was founded in 1976 by Robert K. Heady as a print publisher of the "Bank Rate Monitor."
In 1982 he started the company that would own Bank Advertising News as well as a new publication he launched in response to Congress's decision to deregulate interest rates.
In 1993 Heady sold Bank Rate Monitor to a group of investors led by Peter C. Morse, who formed Intelligent Life Corporation to house the acquisition.
In addition, Intelligent Life published Consumer Mortgage Guide, established in 1995 to publish mortgage rate listings in major newspapers, which then shared in the sale of ads in the allotted space.
Online operations were begun in 1996 with the launch of Bankrate.com, essentially an Internet version of Bank Rate Monitor.
In 1996, the company began moving its business online.
Spearheading the effort was a new CEO hired in July 1997, William P. Anderson, former CEO of an H&R Block, Inc. subsidiary, Block Financial Corporation, which was involved in the delivery of online financial services.
Although Bank Advertising News was sold for $125,000 in December 1998, Intelligent Life retained some of its print publications in order to absorb some of the cost of research and creating original content.
Intelligent Life was taken public in May 1999, through an initial offering of stock raising $45.5 million.
The money was earmarked for further expansion and put to use in August 1999 when a pair of acquisitions were completed.
Anderson resigned in February 2000, replaced by Elisabeth DeMarse.
After joining ilife.com in April 2000, she quickly took steps to address the company's money-losing internet operations.
In May 2000 CPNet.com was sold to Colleges.com, Inc. for shares of stock, and in July Pivot was sold for $4.35 million to First Union, resulting in a $290,000 loss.
In an effort to return to its roots, the company changed its name to Bankrate Inc. in September 2000 and mounted a comeback by taking advantage of the strong Bank Rate brand.
The comeback was completed in January 2003 when Bankrate began trading on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market and the price of its stock approached the $5 level.
Revenues continued to climb in 2003, totaling $36.6 million, while net income increased to $12.1 million.
Despite the success enjoyed by DeMarse, she was replaced in June 2004 by Thomas R. Evans, the former president and publisher of United States News & World Report, the Atlantic Monthly, and Fast Company, as well as the CEO of GeoCities Inc., a family of personal web sites.
In 2004 some of that money was used to open new sales offices in San Francisco and Chicago, while the New York operations were beefed up.
Beginning in 2004, Bankrate also began offering financial education content, insurance quotes, and credit card offers.
When 2005 came to a close, Bankrate realized sales of more than $49 million and net income of $9.7 million.
Bankrate writers have won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists several times, most recently in 2007 for their coverage of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's rate cut.
After spending 10 years as a public company traded on the NASDAQ, Bankrate was acquired in 2009 by Apax Partners 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 March 2012, Bankrate acquired InsuranceAgents.com.
In October 2012, Advertising Age ranked Bankrate as the fifth fastest-growing media company.
In 2012, the company purchased The Points Guy, a site that publishes travel-oriented articles highlighting the credit cards it sells.
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 2014, Bankrate acquired Caring.com for $54 million.
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.
Before joining Bankrate in 2020, he wrote about real estate and the economy for the Palm Beach Post and the South Florida Business Journal.
© 2022 Bankrate, LLC. A Red Ventures company.
Rate Bankrate's efforts to communicate its history to employees.
Bankrate jobs
Do you work at Bankrate?
Does Bankrate communicate its history to new hires?
Bankrate competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LendingClub | 2006 | $5.1M | 1,384 | 30 |
| TheStreet | 1996 | $62.5M | 800 | - |
| MarketWatch | 1997 | $10.5M | 246 | - |
| Pacific Investment Management Company LLC | 1971 | $787.9M | 2,900 | 55 |
| Morgan Stanley | 1935 | $3.0B | 68,097 | 1,078 |
| Apollo Global Management | 1990 | $3.6B | 1,600 | 49 |
| The Vanguard Group | 1975 | $6.9B | 17,600 | 208 |
| Primerica | 1977 | $602.0M | 2,104 | 41 |
| Dice | 1990 | $141.9M | 640 | 11 |
| DocuSign | 2003 | $3.0B | 7,461 | 86 |
Bankrate history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Bankrate, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Bankrate. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Bankrate. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Bankrate. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Bankrate and its employees or that of Zippia.
Bankrate may also be known as or be related to BANKRATE INC., Bankrate, Bankrate Inc, Bankrate LLC, Bankrate, Inc. and Baton Holding, LLC.