ATLANTA, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The Weather Channel Interactive, Inc. (TWCi) today announced the acquisition of http://www.lakerentals.com/ & http://www.coastrentals.com/, online vacation rental websites specializing in lake and coastal properties. This acquisition also includes the purchase of seven other vacation-related internet domain names.

As one of the top online vacation rental websites on the internet, forGetaway.com offers more than 65,000 vacation rental listings across the globe. Each listing provides detailed information for vacation home renters including a description of the property, photographs, rates, features and amenities, nearby activities, availability calendar, unique rental policies and a local weather snapshot.

This acquisition is part of TWCi's program to seek expansion opportunities through acquisitions of companies and assets that complement the core assets of TWCi. The purchase of the lake and coast vacation rental websites and related assets provides additional listing subscriptions and overall visibility online for TWCi's online vacation rental website, forGetaway.com (http://www.forgetaway.com/). forGetaway.com will increase the number of waterfront property listings available to its consumers, providing several thousand additional properties to choose from.

LakeRentals.com, LLC is a Columbia, MO-based company that was founded in 2005 by Brock Bukowsky, Brant Bukowsky, and Nathaniel Broughton to focus on the creation of online vacation sites. Since launching, traffic on the sites has increased by an average of 20% each month, primarily from search engine placement.

"We are excited to add the LakeRentals.com and CoastRentals.com home rental listings to TWCi's portfolio," says Chuck Herring, vice president/general manager Vacation Rentals for TWCi. "They are a perfect fit and will be a great complement to our online vacation rental website forGetaway.com. We hope collectively this will increase our online visibility and assist us grow into a major vacation rental website."

"The acquisition of these lake and coast vacation rentals websites continues TWCi's focus on growth through acquisition, in addition to organic activity," says Steve Hassett, vice president, New Ventures for TWCi. "We look forward to finding more opportunities in relevant content spaces."

About The Weather Channel Interactive

The Weather Channel Interactive, Inc. (TWCi) is the leading provider of broadband and wireless weather products including weather.com, Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel, and The Weather Channel Mobile. weather.com, the Web site of The Weather Channel, is the ultimate source of weather on the Web, helping users plan their lives by delivering timely current conditions, expert forecasts and relevant lifestyle content for 98,000 locations worldwide. weather.com reaches more than 30 million unique users each month, is the most popular source of online weather, news and information and is the most trusted source of online weather information according to Nielsen/NetRatings. TWCi provides consumers with unique and customizable products such as Desktop Weather and a full lineup of mobile services including downloads, messaging, mobile Web, and mobile video. Other TWCi sites include forGetaway.com, a vacation home rental site, Forecast Earth, a site dedicated to the discussion of climate change, and a series of international sites, including http://www.weather.co.uk/, http://www.meteo123.com/, http://www.wetter123.com/, http://www.canaldotempo.com/ and http://www.weather.com/espanol.

About forGetaway.com

forGetaway.com is one of the most dynamic vacation rental sites on the Internet, offering immediate access to information on rental properties worldwide and featuring advanced search capabilities that allow users to search by variables such as price, location, availability and amenities as well as offer vacation property owners access to potential customers. forGetaway.com is a product of The Weather Channel Companies, owned by Landmark Communications, Inc., a Norfolk, VA-based, privately held media company.

CONTACT: David Blumenthal of The Weather Channel, +1-770-226-2611,
dblumenthal@weather.com; or Dana Mark of Trevelino Keller Communications,
+1-404-214-0722 x113, dmark@trevelinokeller.com

Web site: http://www.weather.com/