See Spot Run (from search)

When I first heard about Spot Runner acquiring Weblistic to get in the search business, I was a bit skeptical. As I speculated on the Resolution Media blog, there weren't many gaps in the search world that Spot Runner was positioned to fill and Weblistic didn't seem to be the most savvy of search marketers. I concluded that "only time will tell if this acquisition hits the spot for the online media ecosystem."

Sure enough, it doesn't look like anyone was able to spot the synergies between Spot Runner and Weblistic. ClickZ quotes Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf as saying, "Given our strong traction in video, local search is going to become less of a priority in our business. We're going to explore strategic opportunities as far as that business is concerned."

I think the lesson here is clear. Just because search is the "it" platform doesn't mean you can get into the space and simply start printing money. As I noted last week on the RM blog, when it comes to integration -- just because you can doesn't mean you should.