Wednesday June 23, 5:39 am Eastern Time
CMGI in talks to buy AltaVista -- WSJ
NEW YORK, June 23 (Reuters) - CMGI Inc (Nasdaq:CMGI - news) is in talks to buy AltaVista from Compaq
Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) along with other Internet assets for $2 billion to $3 billion in stock, the Wall
Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Citing people familiar with the situation, the paper said a deal could be announced as early as Thursday, though talks
could still break down.
The paper said that a deal with Compaq, if completed, would give CMGI the AltaVista search engine, currently one of the top 10 sites on the Internet,
as well as Shopping.com, an e-commerce site, and Zip2.com, which offers local content, according to people familiar with the matter.
The three companies are projected to record about $250 million in sales this year but are not profitable, these people say.
One person close to the matter also said that CMGI remains interested in a possible purchase of Lycos Inc (Nasdaq:LCOS - news). CMGI owns an
18 percent stake in Lycos, the No. 2 Web portal, and has been holding talks with Lycos over the past several weeks.
This person says an AltaVista deal would not preclude a future Lycos purchase the Journal said
Officials from Andover, Mass.-based CMGI declined to comment, according to the paper, while Compaq said it couldn't comment on rumours or
speculation. Officials from Waltham, Mass.-based Lycos did not return calls. |
