Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Lycos Sold To South Korean Company

Posted by timothy on from the profit-and-loss dept.

maggeth writes "Terra Networks has finally decided to dump its struggling web portal, Lycos, to the South Korean-based Daum Communications Corp. Terra bought Lycos for $12.5 billion and they managed to sell if for $105 million. More details at the story on eWeek."

8 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. So... by lingqi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lycos owns Wired and Webmonkey and a slew of other actually really cool stuff right...
    I even vaguely remember monster.com being part of their network.

    Lycos portal I don't care, what happens to these?

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:So... by jasonla · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have received two replies from Wired News staffers, regarding my email. They confirm that Wired News, as part of Lycos, was sold to Daum.

      No one, including the staff, knows what will happen to Wired News as it is too early to tell, both staffers said. One staffer said there had been talks of splitting Lycos's various entities and selling them individually, but the idea was dropped.

      The staffer also pointed out an interesting difference between the Wired News website and Wired printed magazine. The magazine is owned by Conde Nast and is not part of Wired News. Lycos owns the website and publishes articles from the magazine through a deal the two forged a few years ago.

  2. Nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    They weren't sold

  3. Re:Terra is that strong? by lothar97 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I imagine most of the "loss" was in intangible assets, such as brandnames, goodwill, etc. To buy Lycos, Inc., Terra just printed $12.5 billion in stock certificates (see this article), which made the then stockholders of Lycos (valued in 2000 at $70ish per share) significantly happy. Terra is owned by Telifonica, which is the national phone company of Spain.

    --

  4. Re:I sure hope they bought this domain too. by Achoi77 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know it's meant to be a joke, but Koreans can pronounce their L's fine. Actually, they can have more trouble pronouncing R's. Which means that Lycos would be preferred over Rycos. Don't confuse Japanese with Korean.

  5. Re:My how times change by waimate · · Score: 3, Informative

    Take heart:- if, when you were in high school, you had a favorite search engine, then it is not too much of a while ago ;)

  6. Re:Now you know why the bubble burst by metalhed77 · · Score: 3, Informative

    IIRC Terra also paid 60 million for the now extremely defunct sonique media player. Yes, 60 million for a skinnable MP3 player.

    --
    Photos.
  7. Ummmmm, 2%? by tehdaemon · · Score: 3, Informative
    At that price, you would earn about 2%/year on your money. Not all that hot. The only way that this makes sense is if you think that Google will a) double (or better) its profits by cost cutting etc., or b) double (or better) it's revenue with the same profit margins, and you think that Google's market value will not fall. Or you think you can sell it back soon to an even bigger sucker than yourself before reality sets in.

    If not, well, 10 year Treasuries are yealding 4.5%, and you will get your money back. Given the risk factors, $5 billion sounds a little high to me. It almost looks to me like the bubble lost some air, but did not pop.

    --
    Laws are horrible moral guides, moral guides make even worse laws.