Stock Watch: Acquisitions Strengthen Engage

Shares of profile-driven online marketing company Engage (Nasdaq: ENGA) -- which is a majority-owned subsidiary of Internet holding company CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI) -- soared nearly 27 percent on Thursday. Shares climbed 20-9/16 to 97-9/16 after the company announced that it will acquire CMGI properties Adsmart and Flycast Communications for about 32 million shares of stock. Based on Thursday's closing price, the deal is worth more than $3.1 billion. Engage stock traded as high as 112-1/2 on Thursday before pulling back.

The acquisitions strengthen Engage's position in the online marketing and advertising arena, which is currently led by DoubleClick. This instance is not the first time that CMGI's investments have gotten together. Recently, destination site AltaVista acquired financial community site Raging Bull.