Though the Financial Times reported that Terra has hired Lehman Brothers to value the Lycos operation, the company would only say that it was in the process of analyzing and revising certain operative units. Within this global process, different options for Lycos US are being analyzed, Terra said.
Lycos was acquired at a time when Telefonica had vast global ambitions and saw the acquisition of Lycos as a way to become one of the largest internet companies in the world. But it is clear that Terra has been losing patience with its US operation and in February it laid off 20% of its staff in the US, 90 people, as it tried to refocus its Lycos web portal into a network of subscription-based services.
Terra Lycos, which is 72% owned by Telefonica, reported revenue down 12% at 547m euros ($653m) in 2003, and it made a net loss of 173m euros ($206.5m).
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
