Lycos US Bought by Korean Company; Possibly Daum

Lycos US has been sold to a South Korean company for between $95 million and $115 million, parent company Terra Lycos said Wednesday.

The company’s board had authorized the sale for an initial price of $95-$115 million. A final agreement was still being worked on, it said. The price is slightly above Lycos’s book value of about $90.36 million.

Terra said it would keep some Lycos assets (mainly the Terra Networks part), including the stake of almost 30 percent that Lycos has in Lycos Europe.

Meanwhile, Terra’s own stock trading on the Spanish market had been halted, following this report…but the trading has resumed again.

The story says that the buyer is a Korean company. OK, now time to connect the dots: Daum Communications, the biggest portal in that country, has been itching to enter the U.S. market. It recently bought majority in a Japanese portal, and some cash to spare. The company has been trying to buy Mail.com, the free e-mail service…

The Daum name has been circulating around in Lycos US offices for almost two weeks now, but no confirmation or official word from Terra in Spain to the US offices. The employees have been sitting on eggshells here…

Now all I’m saying is: forget Mail.com. Rest I’ll leave to the official announcement, which is expected to happen within the next day or two…

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