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Lycos is a search engine and web portal with broadband entertainment content.

History

Lycos began as a search engine research project by Dr. Michael Loren Mauldin of Carnegie Mellon University in 1994. Bob Davis joined the company as its CEO and first employee in 1995. Lycos then enjoyed several years of growth and, in 1999, became the most visited online destination in the world, with a global presence in more than 40 countries. Lycos was sold to Terra Networks of Spain in May 2000 for $5.4 billion, forming a new company Terra Lycos and maintaining a position as one of the world's largest Internet companies. Shortly after the merger, Davis left the company to become a venture capitalist with Highland Capital Partners in Boston. In October 2004, Lycos was sold by Terra's parent company Telefonica to Daum Communications Corporation, the second largest Internet portal in Korea, becoming once again Lycos Inc.

Corporate Development

Shortly after the development of the search engine, Lycos Inc. was formed with approximately US$2 million in venture capital funding from CMGI. The founder and CEO of Lycos since interception was Bob Davis, a Boston native who incorporated the company in Massachusetts and concentrated on building it into an advertising-supported web portal. Lycos grew from a crowded field in 1995 to become the most-visited web portal in the world in the spring of 1999 (as measured by visits to all of its sites).

In 1996, the company completed the fastest IPO from inception to offering in NASDAQ history, and, in 1997, became one of the first profitable internet businesses in the world. In 1998 it paid $58 million for Tripod in an attempt to "break into the portal market" which was rapidly developing; over the course of the next few years this was followed by nearly two dozen acquisitions of high profile internet brands including Gamesville, WhoWhere, Wired Digital (sold to Wired), Quote.com, Angelfire and Raging Bull.

Lycos Europe was a joint venture between Bertelsmann and Lycos but has always been a distinct corporate entity. Although Lycos Europe is the largest of the overseas ventures several other companies also entered into joint venture agreements including Lycos Canada, Lycos Korea and Lycos Asia.

Near the peak of the internet bubble in May 2000, Lycos announced its intent to be acquired by Terra Networks, the internet arm of the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica, for $5.4 billion. The acquisition price represented a nearly 3000 times return on the initial venture capital investment in Lycos and about 20 times its initial public offering valuation. The transaction closed in October 2000. The merged company was renamed Terra Lycos yet the Lycos brand was the US franchise. Overseas the company continued to be known as Terra Networks, Davis left the company shortly after the merger was completed to join Highland Capital Partners, a premier venture capital fund where he now serves as a Managing General partner and concentrates on internet investments.