Lycos Europe announced on Wednesday plans to shutter its portal and Web-hosting business and find a buyer for three other areas of its business.
The company, which last month announced a 20 percent drop in revenue to 46.9 million euros ($60.8 million) and a net loss of 17.1 million euros, said the decision was made after reviewing its strategic options for several months.
It also plans to seek a buyer for other parts of its operation: its domains, Danish portal, and shopping activities.
Investors will vote on the management proposal at the company's December 12 shareholders meeting. Should the proposal receive approval, Lycos Europe will distribute 50 million euros to shareholders by year's end.
The closure of Lycos Europe's portal, which includes search, online communities, and content channels, comes as it faces increased competition from Yahoo and Google and a decline in user traffic.
According to the Financial Times, music label EMI is planning to launch its own music portal to sell songs and videos, and offer some free content as well.
My first reaction was similar to that of the anonymous music executive quoted in the FT article: dead on arrival. Listeners don't know and don't care about labels; they want to buy all their music in one place, and so on.
But surely EMI's digital team, led by former Googler Douglas Merrill, is smart enough to realize that it can't take on Apple's iTunes with a label-specific store.
I suspect that this is more of a cross-marketing play instead. Users will google an EMI artist like--just to pick an example at random--A Perfect Circle. Instead of directing them to a boring alphabetical list with a link to the band's MySpace page, users could land on a label-owned page with actual songs and videos and CDs, both free and for sale. Once there, EMI might intelligently discern that a fan who likes A Perfect Circle might also like Korn and Iron Maiden, two other metal bands with recordings on EMI, and offer those recordings for sale as well.
And now, just because I haven't linked to it in a while, here's the Sex Pistols.
Verizon Communications said Wednesday that it's extending its agreement with Yahoo to provide Verizon Internet users with Yahoo's Web portal.
The companies' multiyear agreement replaces a similar arrangement the companies had in place since 2005. Verizon didn't offer details about the duration or financial terms of the new deal. But it did say Yahoo's portal will be the first choice offered to subscribers of its DSL and Fios high-speed Internet service. Verizon will also offer its own branded portal and the MSN portal from Microsoft.
The deal between Verizon and Yahoo appears to only cover Verizon's wired broadband services. The companies made no mention of a deal that included services for Verizon Wireless, which is jointly owned by European carrier Vodafone and Verizon Communications. Recent news articles have reported that Verizon Wireless is close to striking a deal with Google on mobile search and advertising. Yahoo also offers mobile search and advertising products that Verizon Wireless could use as well. AT&T, which has a similar broadband portal arrangement with Yahoo that Verizon has, also has chosen Yahoo as one of its mobile partners.
Verizon Wireless hasn't yet announced any kind of arrangement with Google, so it will be interesting to see if Yahoo can parlay its broadband deal into anything for mobile. Yahoo has a strong portfolio in mobile and it has done well so far in the mobile market. Like Google, it has adapted some of its traditional Web services, like search, for the mobile market.
Earlier this year, Yahoo redesigned its mobile home page and announced Yahoo Go 3.0, an open platform for widgets created by outsiders. It's also been rolling out new partnerships for mobile advertising. In addition to providing search and display advertising for AT&T, Yahoo has also won big deals with other carriers such as Vodafone and T-Mobile in Europe and Rogers in Canada.
The Olympics are a media feeding frenzy, as everyone tries to capitalize on the huge audience for the global sporting event, and now Yahoo is trying to get in the action.
Medal results are one customized result that Yahoo now shows with Olympics-related searches. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Yahoo)The Internet pioneer said on its Search blog on Tuesday that it's launched a number of shortcuts to present Olympics-related information through Yahoo's search engine. The shortcuts package up information such as the overall medal count, a country's specific medal count, and information for individual athletes.
The customized results present content including video on the search results, blurring the lines between an Internet portal and a search engine. The results also include a link that can take users to various related Yahoo Sports Olympics coverage pages, which at least at present feature a lot of advertisements by Visa.
Google also is getting business out of the Olympics because NBC Universal is using its DoubleClick ad delivery technology for online video of the Olympics. Microsoft, too, has a stake: its Silverlight technology could get a big boost in adoption because NBC's video player is built using the software.
Update 4:17 p.m.: Search Engine Land found Google is doing the same thing as Yahoo with specialized Olympics search results.
Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.
AOL announced partnerships to bolster its AOL Health site with content from Caring.com, Health.com, and HealthCare.com, the Time Warner subsidiary said Monday.
Caring.com has information about helping care for elderly parents; Health.com is part of Time's Health brand; and HealthCare.com will supply AOL with access to its search facility for medical and dental professionals, AOL said.
AOL shows targeted advertising supplied by AOL's ad business, Platform-A, on its health site, which is part of the company's larger AOL Living site.
"Our goal at AOL Health is to create a comprehensive network of information that will help the entire family take care of their health needs," said Stephanie Dolgins, senior vice president of AOL women's and lifestyle programming, in a statement.
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