Dr. Jeff Masters has announced on his Weather Underground web site that, “After 17 years as an independent company, Weather Underground has been sold, and will now be part of The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC.)”

In 1995, when the newly created commercial Internet put up for sale domains with a “.com” designation, Weather Underground, Inc. became the world’s first commercial weather web site.

The company grew from 6 employees in 1999 to 20 in 2009. But in the past three years, Weather Underground entered into a rapid period of growth that saw their staff more than double to 57 people. With a swelling user base around the globe, and with demands for their services to be made available across so many new digital platforms like mobile phones and tablets, the board recognised the need for an even greater injection of resources, and the decision was made to merge with The Weather Channel Companies.

Dr. Masters says The Weather Channel is committed to keeping the Weather Underground brand and the web site in its current form. His blog, along with many Weather Underground features, such as their Personal Weather Station data and WunderMap are scheduled to also appear on the weather.com web site in the coming months.

The official press release follows:

July 2, 2012 – The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC) today announced an agreement to acquire Weather Underground, a leading provider of Web based weather data. The transaction, terms of which were not disclosed, was announced by TWCC chairman and CEO David Kenny and Weather Underground president Alan Steremberg and is expected to close in several weeks.

“Everyone in the weather space is familiar with the strength of Weather Underground and its innovative method of presenting weather data. Weather Underground will add a great complementary, brand to our portfolio, a brand with a distinct, loyal, and active user base that will enable us to reach a unique segment of users,” said Kenny. “Most importantly, this acquisition will grow the weather expertise that is central to everything we do and will result in better forecasts and weather data for users on all of our platforms.”

“Becoming a part of The Weather Channel Companies will enable us to strengthen what our users love about wunderground.com, our apps and our blogs,” said Steremberg. “We see this as a great opportunity to grow.”

Weather Underground’s popular site wunderground.com and its portfolio of mobile applications will continue to operate and its employees will become a part of TWCC, furthering the company’s place as the leading provider of the most accurate weather data across all platforms serving consumers and business users. In addition, Weather Underground’s San Francisco headquarters will become a regional office for TWCC. Blackstone Advisory Partners L.P. served as TWCC’s financial advisor in the transaction and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP acted as legal advisor. Weather Underground was advised by Digital Capital Advisors, LLC.

About The Weather Channel Companies

The Weather Channel companies (TWCC) are made up of The Weather Channel® television network, The Weather Channel digital properties, and WSI. The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta and is seen in more than 100 million U.S. households. TWCC also operates Weatherscan®, a 24-hour all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; and The Weather Channel HD. The most popular source of weather news and information, TWCC properties reach 60 million monthly Web consumers (weather.com and Desktop) and 32 million monthly mobile users (mobile Web and applications) and offers the second most popular mobile app on all smartphones. WSI, headquartered in Andover, MA, primarily provides business-to-business weather services, particularly for the media, aviation, marine and energy sectors. TWCC is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.

About Weather Underground

The world’s first online weather service, Weather Underground is committed to delivering the most comprehensive, reliable weather information possible. Home to more than 21 million users and weather provider to partners such as Google, The Associated Press and CBS, the company’s state-of-the-art technology monitors conditions and forecasts for locations across the world. With more than 19,000 users contributing local observations from personal weather stations, Weather Underground is able to provide up-to-the-minute weather conditions for the most finely targeted areas. In addition to serving free online weather information to millions of unique users every month, Weather Underground delivers custom-designed weather page solutions to an array of businesses and media clients – both online and in print.