San Francisco: Text 100 has landed the prized US PR business for internet search company Ask Jeeves.

The account was resigned by San Francisco's Interactive PR earlier this year and was won by Text in a pitch understood to have included Fleishman-Hillard. According to Ask Jeeves' vice president of corporate communications Heather Staples, the US account alone is worth more than £300,000 in annual fees.

Staples is understood to have selected Text on the basis of its expertise in business-to-business communications.

The work will be headed by Aedhmar Hynes, Text's North American president. Text will run the account with a 'virtual team' made up of staff from both its San Francisco and Seattle offices.

The company, which currently uses London-based Text subsidiary Joe Public Relations for consumer PR in the UK, has also handed Text's London office a portion of its global business-to-business account. This work will be overseen by UK managing director Glen Goldsmith and chief executive Tim Dyson.

Ask Jeeves is one of the 20 most-visited sites on the web. Last week it launched a campaign to promote its web services for businesses. Until now, the company has devoted most of its resources to reaching consumer audiences.

The Jeeves account is Text's second major recent US client win. Last month, the agency took from GCI the account for Microsoft founder Paul Allen's e-commerce infrastructure provider Harbinger.

Text's worldwide operations include more than 30 offices and seven subsidiary brands. The company reports pre-tax profits of £1.7 million in 1999.

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