Ybrant Digital of India buying Lycos Web portal from Korea’s Daum for $36 million

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Indian company buying Lycos from Korea’s Daum

NEW YORK — An Indian company on Monday said it is buying Lycos Inc., once a high-flying U.S. Web portal, for $36 million from Korean Web company Daum Communications.

The buyer is Ybrant Digital, a digital marketing company based in Hyderabad.

Originally based in Waltham, Mass., Lycos was one of the top destinations on the Web around 2000, helped by its Tripod Web-hosting services. It was bought by Spanish Internet service provider Terra Networks SA in 2001, in a deal originally valued at $12.5 billion.

Lycos was unable to keep up with Google, Yahoo and other competitors for the attention of Internet surfers. In 2004, when Lycos was the eighth-largest destination on the Web, Terra sold the Web portal business to Daum in 2004 for $105 million while keeping other assets.

“Our goal is to combine the benefits of Ybrant’s global network with what Lycos has to offer in creating a compelling global destination for our advertising clients worldwide,” said Suresh Reddy, chairman and CEO of Ybrant.