Making its second major move in Latin America, Microsoft Corp. and Telefonos de Mexico Tuesday inked a joint venture deal to create a Spanish-language portal.
The Mexican ISP and telco has joined with the Seattle-based industry heavyweight to offer content and Internet services in Spanish to users throughout the Americas. The portal will include the MSN, Hotmail, MSN Messenger, and online shopping.
“The alliance will utilize the strength of each company: Telmex’s high-quality infrastructure and regional expertise, and Microsoft’s worldwide leadership in software and Internet services,” said Jaime Chico Pardo, Telmex’s (MSFT) is on a spur of activity for its regionalization plans, earlier this month launching an Israeli MSN portal through a joint venture with Internet Gold.
In August, the company made its first major investment in Latin America when it acquired an 11 percent stake in Brazilian cable TV operator Globo Cabo. The deal included plans to create a co-branded portal created from a merger between MSN.com and Globo.com.