Ananzi is a brand almost as old as the South African Internet itself. But being the original, home-grown search engine has not afforded it the luxury of a sheltered existence, or any respect for its survival skills. As a mature brand and as an intellectual property that has endured the dot com bust, it has been courted and carried off by some of the biggest Internet operations in the country.

It should have been a good omen that Ananzi was Johnnic`s first buy in the rollout of the eVentures division. But it soon emerged that Johnnic`s purchase of Ananzi may have been at least partially motivated by the global trend towards media convergence and allowed the company to appear to emulate industry leaders such as AOL Time-Warner. Johnnic`s broader strategy involved using Ananzi as a conduit to channel traffic to its content sites, including the Sunday Times, Business Day and other publications.