GetSmart.com got sold yesterday to Providian Financial for $33 million in cash. GetSmart.com is a free, on-line marketplace for home loans, personal loans, credit cards, student loans and auto leases. The company offers loan products, via performance-based contracts, from more than 100 lenders. GetSmart's revenues are derived from approved applications it produces. While the company promoted itself as a source of objective and unbiased loan info, the firm simply refers visitors to loans products offered by its participants. GetSmart.com offers no educational content. The company says it attracted eight million visitors last year producing nearly 450,000 completed applications. GetSmart's traffic was generated from paid banner ads on so-called portal sites such as Yahoo!, Lycos, Wired Digital, InfoSeek, DoubleClick and CBS MarketWatch. The two-year old company spent $13 million for banner ads during 1998. GetSmart.com was founded by a group of executives from Wells Fargo and ex-McKinsey partners from the Mitchell Madison Group. Former Wells Fargo executive Bill Fisher lead the group and served as CEO. Capital partners included Reuters, Goldman Sachs, Robertson Stephens and technology investor Roger McNamee. Fisher indicated yesterday he is leaving the firm after the buyout, which is expected to close by March 1. Providian indicated it will operate the company as a stand-alone entity to avoid losing GetSmart's bank clients. Providian will likely use the GetSmart database to market its broad array of loan products to consumers with less than perfect credit.