image thumb125 Google to acquire Czech Search Engine Seznam for $1 billion ? Rumors are surfacing that Czech Search Engine and portal, Seznam could be sold to a strategic buyer or a financial investor. Seznam has a 62% market share in the Czech search market as compared to Google’s 29%. The price tag is rumored to be north of $1 billion.

Google is being seen as a potential buyer alongwith private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which owns the #2 Czech portal Centrum. Czech yellow pages publisher Macquarie Capital Alliance Group which publishes Mediatel is also a likely suitor.

Seznam was founded in 1996 and had 4.4 million unique visitors in May 2008, ahead of news site iDnes.cz (3 million), web portal Centrum.cz (2.9 million), and a blogging service blog.cz (2.4 million) according to Czech business weekly.

Seznam’s majority shares are held by its founder Ivo Lukacovic. 30% of the company stocks are ownder by Tiger Holding Four and Miura International, who bought these shares from Lycos Europe for €65 million ($91 million) in April 2007, at a valuation of $300 million for the search engine.

Seznam is expected to generate $90 million in revenues in 2008, up 40% from the prior year. If the deal goes through, it will be the largest ever Internet acquisition in Eastern Europe.