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Lycos Buys Wired Digital

Scooping up HotBot and other services, the fast-growing portal expects to reach more than 40 percent of Web users.

By Chrystie Terry, PCWorld   

Continuing its charge towards the top of the Web site charts, Lycos announced on Tuesday a definitive agreement to acquire Wired Digital. By the end of the year when the transaction closes, Wired's Web-based products and services (including the HotBot search site, HotWired, Wired News, and Webmonkey) will be added to Lycos's existing services (Lycos.com, Tripod, WhoWhere, Angelfire, MailCity, and Guestworld). The Lycos Network, a loosely integrated collection of sites, then will reach more than 40 percent of the Web audience--just 6% below market-leading Yahoo, according to Lycos.

Executives said that Lycos and Wired Digital have begun making each other's services available on their properties. Wired Digital claims to attract almost 5 million unique visitors a month, and the companies said that only 20 percent of HotBot's and Lycos's audience overlap. "More people buy goods and services through HotBot then any other search engine," said Bob Davis, Lycos president and chief executive officer. Analysts noted, however, that HotBot is based on the Inktomi search engine, which is also licensed to Yahoo and other rivals. The purchase will be made for about $83 million in Lycos stock plus additional stock to cover any Wired cash outstanding at the time of acquisition.

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