for the former corporation terra lycos see terra networks . for defunct european venture see lycos europe . lycos inc. a screenshot of lycos.com type subsidiary founded 1994 ; 22 years ago 1994 pittsburgh pennsylvania u.s. headquarters waltham massachusetts founder s bob davis key people suresh reddy ceo of ybrant digital 1 revenue 24.76 m 2009 2 employees 72 in us 2007 parent ybrant digital 3 slogan s simplify your digital life website www.lycos.com alexa rank 15 246 september 2016 update 4 type of site search engine and web portal registration optional available in multilingual launched april 13 1995 ; 21 years ago 1995 04 13 current status active lycos inc. is a search engine and web portal established in 1994 spun out of carnegie mellon university . lycos also encompasses a network of email webhosting social networking and entertainment websites . contents 1 corporate history 2 lycos network sites 2.1 lycos branded sites 2.2 former lycos sites 3 references 4 external links corporate history edit lycos is a university spin off that began as a research project by michael loren mauldin of carnegie mellon university s main pittsburgh campus in 1994 . lycos inc. was formed with approximately us 2 million 3.2 million today in venture capital funding from cmgi . bob davis became the ceo and first employee of the new company in 1995 and concentrated on building the company into an advertising supported web portal . lycos enjoyed several years of growth during the 1990s and became the most visited online destination in the world in 1999 with a global presence in more than 40 countries . 5 6 in 1996 the company completed the fastest ipo from inception to offering in nasdaq history . in 1997 it became one of the first profitable internet businesses in the world . in 1998 lycos paid 58 million 84.2 million today for tripod in an attempt to break into the portal market . 7 over the course of the next few years lycos acquired nearly two dozen internet brands including gamesville whowhere wired digital eventually sold to wired quote.com angelfire matchmaker.com and raging bull . lycos europe was a joint venture between lycos and the bertelsmann transnational media corporation but it has always been a distinct corporate entity . although lycos europe remains the largest of lycos s overseas ventures several other companies also entered into joint venture agreements including lycos canada lycos korea and lycos asia . 8 near the peak of the internet bubble on may 16 2000 lycos announced its intent to be acquired by terra networks the internet arm of the spanish telecommunications giant telef nica for 12.5 billion 17.8 billion today . 9 the acquisition price represented a return of nearly 3000 times the company s initial venture capital investment and about 20 times its initial public offering valuation . the transaction closed in october 2000 and the merged company was renamed terra lycos although the lycos brand continued to be used in the united states . overseas the company continued to be known as terra networks . on august 2 2004 terra announced that it was selling lycos to seoul south korea based daum communications corporation for 95.4 million in cash 119.52 million today less than 2 % of terra s initial multibillion dollar investment . in october 2004 the transaction closed for sale of half of the business and the company name was changed back to lycos inc. the remaining terra half was reacquired by telef nica . under new ownership lycos began to refocus its strategy . in 2005 the company moved away from a search centric portal and toward a community destination for broadband entertainment content . with a new management team in place lycos also began divesting properties that were not core to its new strategy . in july 2006 wired news which had been part of lycos since the purchase of wired digital in 1998 was sold to cond nast publications and re merged with wired magazine . the lycos finance division best known for quote.com and ragingbull.com was sold to ft interactive data corporation in february 2006 while its online dating site matchmaker.com was sold to date.com . in 2006 lycos regained ownership of the lycos trademark from carnegie mellon university . during 2006 lycos introduced several media services including lycos phone which combined video chat real time video on demand and an mp3 player . in august of the same year a new version of lycos mail was released which allowed sending and receiving large files including unlimited file attachment sizes . in november 2006 lycos began to roll out applications centered on social media including the first citation needed watch and chat video application with the launch of its lycos cinema platform . in february 2007 lycos mix was launched allowing users to pull video clips from youtube google video yahoo video and myspace video . lycos mix also allowed users to create playlists where other users could add video comments and chat in real time . as part of a corporate restructuring to focus on mobile social networks and location based services daum sold lycos for 36 million in august 2010 to ybrant digital an internet marketing company based in hyderabad india . 3 10 11 in may 2012 lycos announced the appointment of former employee rob balazy as ceo . 12 due to a disagreement over the price of lycos daum and ybrant went to court which backed daum s claims . this prompted daum in 2016 to seize lycos s shares back from ybrant . 13 lycos network sites edit angelfire a lycos property providing free web hosting blogging and web publishing tools gamesville lycos s massive multi player gaming site hotbot a lycos owned search engine tripod.com a lycos property providing free web hosting blogging and web publishing tools whowhere.com a people search engine insiderinfo weather zombie a lycos property providing weather forecasts with a zombie theme via accuweather . lycos branded sites edit lycos domains internet domain name purchasing lycos mail an e mail provider formerly known as mailcity.com . lycos chat a photo chatting community . lycos weather lycos yellow pages former lycos sites edit getrelevant.com a lycos online advertising site quote.com and raging bull finance sites matchmaker.com a dating site webmonkey web building help and tutorials wired.com the online arm of wired magazine lycos radio allowed users to create and host their own free internet radio shows references edit management team . ybrantdigital.com . retrieved 14 february 2015 . pahwa nikhil august 16 2010 . lycos sold to india s ybrant digital for 36 million . medianama . india . retrieved august 17 2010 . a b ybrant digital buys lycos for 36 million . businesswire . comtex news network inc. august 16 2010 . retrieved august 16 2010 . lycos.com site info . alexa internet . retrieved 2016 09 05 . thackray neil . lycos . briefing media ltd. retrieved april 14 2013 . dead link worlock david august 20 2010 . paradigm lost . retrieved april 14 2013 . price christopher december 15 1998 . gateway to the future christopher price gives the lowdown on the sites which offer not only a way into the worldwide web but so much more . financial times . p. 16 . lycos asia seeks speed and performance . zd net . january 17 2001 . retrieved april 14 2013 . lycos in 12.5 b deal may 16 2000 . money.cnn.com . retrieved august 4 2013 . ybrant digital buys lycos for 36 million . retrieved march 7 2011 . lycos is alive acquired for 36 million . retrieved march 7 2011 . chris reidy may 7 2012 . rob balazy appointed ceo of lycos . the boston globe . retrieved september 20 2013 . peggy brickley march 15 2016 . www.wsj.com articles ybrant unit files for bankruptcy over price on lycos deal 1458044619 ybrant unit files for bankruptcy over price on lycos deal check url value help . the wall street journal . retrieved september 4 2016 . external links edit lycos search home lycos chat ybrant digital lycos parent company lycos about page retrieved from https 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