Lycos Europe reports EUR 18.2 mln losses

Lycos Europe N.V., one of the leading European portal providers and online advertisers, published its consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2007 with EBITDA for the year amounting to a loss of EUR 18.2 mln compared to a loss of 4.6 mln in 2006.

The main reasons are the negative advertising revenue development of own products, which could not be compensated by the growing third party advertising revenues, the increase in paid service and shopping revenues together with a reduced margin due to the change in the revenues mix, a general margin decrease in the Shopping business, an increase in cost of revenues partly related to the move to a new data center and additional marketing initiatives for Lycos iQ.

The net profit increased to EUR 40.1 mln for 2007 compared to 2006 (EUR 1.7 mln) mainly driven by the disposal of several investments and the disposal of the Swedish Access business.

Cash, cash equivalents and other investments increased to EUR 157.2 mln compared to EUR 93.3 mln in 2006. This leads to a cash ratio of 4.1 (cash, cash equivalents and other investments divided by total liabilities), which shows the strong financial position of Lycos Europe.

In 2008 the goal is to continue our focus on growth areas consistently. Lycos Europe will focus on and accentuate the areas of advertising and shopping. The company believes that the combination of creative product development and the capability for technological innovation will enable Lycos Europe to differentiate itself from other participants in the market and to generate a sustained competitive advantage.
Lycos Europe operates a network of websites in seven languages in Europe and the USA.