US price comparison service Pricegrabber.com has been purchased by UK retailing giant GUS for $485 million.

Pricegrabber sorts thorough millions of products to find the lowest prices for consumers and receives a commission on each sale. The service was used by over 17 million visitors in November and has sales forecasts of $60 million for 2005.

The US firm is being bought by GUS's Experian business. Experian boss Don Robert said that Pricegrabber had higher profit margins than larger rivals Shopzilla.com and Shopping.com.

"We think they're the most consumer-friendly company out there and we've been courting them for quite some time," he said on Wednesday. Analysts also reacted favourably to the announcement. "Experian has a good history of making acquisitions work," said Investec.

BBC