NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bankrate, Inc. (NYSE: RATE) (the "Company") announced today the commencement of a proposed secondary public offering of 14,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock by Ben Holding S.a r.l. (the "Selling Stockholder"), an entity wholly owned by investment funds advised by Apax Partners.  The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,100,000 shares of common stock from the Selling Stockholder.  The Company itself is not selling any shares and will not receive any proceeds from the proposed offering, and it will not change the number of shares of the Company's common stock that are currently outstanding.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is the lead book-running manager and representative of the underwriters.  BofA Merrill Lynch and RBC Capital Markets are joint book-running managers.  Stephens Inc. is a lead manager on this transaction.

A registration statement and preliminary prospectus relating to the offering have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is available on its Web site, http://www.sec.gov.  The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from: Goldman, Sachs & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526; facsimile: 212-902- 9316; email: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com; BofA Merrill Lynch, Attention: Prospectus Department, 222 Broadway, New York, New York 10038 (or emailing dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com); or RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, Three World, Financial Center 200 Vesey Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10281 (or by calling 1-877-822-4089).

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet.  Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes.  Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of approximately 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 180,000 distinct rate tables capturing, on average, over three million pieces of information weekly.  Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 100 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, CNN Money, CNBC and Comcast.  In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 100 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management.  Because such statements are based on expectations as to future events and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected.  The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.  The risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to, the risks detailed in the "Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements," "Risk Factors" and other sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 and other filings with the SEC.

For more information contact:

Edward J. DiMariaSVP, Chief Financial Officer edimaria@bankrate.com (917) 368-8608

Bruce J. ZancaSVP, Chief Communications/Marketing Officer bzanca@bankrate.com (917) 368-8648

SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.

RELATED LINKShttp://www.bankrate.com