Yupi Internet Inc., the Miami Beach-based Latin American portal, handed out pink slips to approximately 90 employees yesterday, reducing its U.S. staff by nearly 50 percent.

The cuts, which affected mostly staff in South Florida, had been rumored for months and observers said it's likely that the internet company will need to trim more staff next year as it restructures to meet the changing capital and competitive environment.

The Spanish-language portal has approximately 80 employees in six other offices in Spain and Latin America, according to a company spokeswoman and she said Yupi would not rule out cuts there. The employees let go were handed severance packages and will have access to job placement services.

Homegrown Yupi was once seen as a formidable contender against the efforts of America Online Latin America, , and Starmedia,. The portal was one of the first to cater to the Spanish-language markets of the U.S. and Latin America, and had gained momentum early on through a series of shrewd acquisitions and the deep pockets of investors such as IFX Corp. and Sony Corp. of America.

Will Landers, a senior analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston, in NewYork, told miami.internet.com that he was confident Yupi would be one of the survivors in the region. "They have a good management team in place there," he said in an interview at a conference on Miami Beach recently.

Early this year, Yupi had planned what some observers considered, the most anticipated initial public offering for a South Florida dot.com. The company spent millions on a marketing campaign that included television spots on the major networks, as well as billboard and subway ads in New York, South Florida and California.

But chief executive officer Oscar Coen, and his investors, quashed the planned IPO -- which was to raise $172.5 million -- in March when the markets began to show signs of a prolonged decline. Mr. Coen was not available to comment for this article, according to his assistant.

Previously the company underwent a rapid expansion, adding staff at a furious pace and at one point inhabiting office space in three buildings on trendy South Beach. In 1999 Yupi acquired Ciudad Futura, a Spanish web hosting company based on the then-popular GeoCities model. The company also bought a women's interests website called MujerFutura.com and a business-to-business website called amarillas.com.

But the diversification came at a price. Yupi depends heavily on advertising revenue and, like many other dot.com companies, has been hard pressed by the slow down in the internet market even though some of its ventures, such as amarillas.com and its recently launched job site, Yupi Empleos, are just now beginning to bring in money.

In 1999, Interprise Technology Partners, a Miami-based venture capital fund, invested $10 million in Yupi. And another group of investors -- led by IFX and Sony -- pumped $67 million into the company.

The company is now soliciting more funds from its existing investors and is planning a fourth round of venture financing.