The company, consisting of a web portal and web hosting business, will liquidate its assets and return around 50 million euros to the shareholders. However, 500 to 700 people will lose their jobs. The US-based Lycos Inc. is a different company and is not directly affected by the demise of Lycos Europe, but it's also a far cry from its glory days when its front page was the most visited portal on the web.
One has to wonder, however, how many old giants will fall prey to the recession (which, by the way, doesn't show signs of loosening its grip on the US economy)? Rewind back 7 or 8 years ago; the names that ruled the Internet are either far from profitable, or nowhere to be seen: HotBot (pretty much just a name now), Altavista, Napster. Hell, you can even throw Yahoo in there, because although it's still huge as far as web brands go, things aren't looking good for it either.