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Technology Stocks : TERRA NETWORKS (TELEFONICA INTERACTIVA) TRRA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rrufff who wrote (85)	3/22/2000 1:34:00 AM
From: adsorb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97

Microsoft, Telmex launch Latin web portal By Michael Connor MIAMI, March 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Mexican phone giant Telmex (MEX:TELMEXL) on Tuesday launched the Spanish language web portal T1msn, the first of a series of portals the partners plan for Latin America's hot Internet markets. StarMedia (NASDAQ:STRM), Terra Networks (NASDAQ:TRRA), Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and others already compete for Latin America's small but promising Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking online audiences, which Microsoft chairman Bill Gates predicted will explode to 30 million by 2003. "We are incredibly optimistic about the future of Latin America, because its countries are rapidly increasing their investments in the technologies and infrastructure needed to connect businesses, governments and education," Gates told a conference of Microsoft software users in Miami. Gates and Carlos Slim, chairman of Telmex, Mexico's dominant phone carrier, said at a news conference T1msn was the fruit of an alliance put in place last year and would be a gateway to the Spanish-language Internet. The executives said they aimed to knock aside start-ups such as StarMedia to become the preeminent Spanish-language portal and were beginning with substantial advantages. Microsoft's Hotmail e-mail service already has more than 5 million users from Latin America and T1msn homepage would appear prominently on new computers sold in the region, according to executives. The service will produce little original editorial content and will instead provide links to news, sports, shopping and other services. E-mail, online chatting and a search engine will be among the services offered, the companies said. T1msn, located at www.t1msn.com, will initially offer services aimed at Mexico and Spanish speakers throughout the Americas and plans to launch other country-specific web portals during the coming year, the companies said. Executives said a stock quotation or offering from T1msn would come eventually but that the companies had the money and other resources to sustain start-up costs. Gates declined to discuss financials, other than to say each company was making a "substantial investment." T1msn will be based in Mexico and will be led by Gerardo Villarreal, a Mexican national and a veteran Microsoft executive in Latin America. Telmex, last week began offering high speed Internet service in 27 Mexican cities, just weeks after Terra Networks, the Internet unit of Spain's Telefonica SA, and IFX Corp (NASDAQ:FUTR), began offering free Internet access in Mexico. Microsoft executives said they were considering a similar alliance to start an Internet portal in Brazil, the single largest Internet marketplace in Latin America, but gave no details. miami.newsroom@reuters.com--)) Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service