CBQ Wednesday unveiled a venture plan to
bring Lycos and Mexican news provider El Economista together to set up
portals for the Mexican and Central American audience.
El Economista will provide content to the portal, while CBQ and Capital House Merchant
Banking, LLC to finance the Mexico sites. Content and e-commerce
initiatives will be cross-promoted with the Lycos (LCOS)
Americas Internet service.
“We believe in the great potential of the e-business market in Mexico,” said
John Harris, CBQ’s chief executive officer.”CBQ is delighted to be working
with El Economista and Lycos to assure that the Internet portal created by
our joint endeavor is technically sound and will support the volume of
traffic that we expect to generate.”
CBQ said it will mediate the cross-promotions through its dallas
headquarters, as the three companies pursue the second largest Internet
population in Latin America.
“The launch of our El Economista Web site as part of the Lycos Americas
service will expand advertising revenues and allow our content to be seen by
more people around the world,” said Luis Enrique Mercado, director general
of El Economista.
CBQ’s interests thus far have ranged from targeting the Chinese Internet
market to offering Web-based health care management systems, through its
subsidiaries.
In related news, Lycos Tuesday announced in its earnings report that the
company’s revenue spiked 120 percent in the last year, 23 percent in the
last quarter. The network’s total profits were $3 million. Lycos also
registered 122 million pageviews per day.
“We continue to operate the Internet’s premier network of brands and have
seen continued momentum in revenue, page view growth and margins,” said
Robert J. Davis, president and chief executive officer of Lycos. “Further, with the launch of
services in seven Latin American countries and our newly announced joint
venture with Bell Canada, which makes us the number one portal in Canada,
our international operations witnessed great expansion and progress.”
Lycos operates independently or through joint ventures in 24 countries.
