Lycos history

Lycos launched its licensing program in April 1996 through an agreement with the Scandinavian newspaper the Swedish Post.

Although Lycos became a public company in early 1996, both CMU and Mauldin kept about 8 percent of the company's stock.

After going public in 1996 it acquired a wide range of companies providing content and services.

Throughout 1996 Lycos continued to upgrade its search engine.

Lycos CEO Bob Davis claimed that Lycos's categories were "incredibly more expansive" than Yahoo!'s because of the software, and Lycos planned to build a directory of web sites, a project it had started in 1996 with a2z but later abandoned.

1996: Lycos goes public and raises $46 million in its initial public offering (IPO).

Later in the year Lycos surprised analysts when it reported its first profitable quarter ending October 31, 1997.

As of early 1997, Lycos had cataloged almost 70 million URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) on the World Wide Web.

In the fall of 1997, Lycos announced it was taking steps to further streamline Lycos Pro, its advanced search engine.

Introduced in mid-1997, Lycos Pro proved an immediate success.

In mid-1997 Lycos entered into several partnerships that are likely to boost its rank among Internet navigational tools.

Officers: Robert J. Davis, Pres. & CEO, 41,1997 base salary $298,000; Edward M. Philip, COO, CFO, & Secretary, 32, 1997 base salary $200,000

In 1997 Lycos joined the call for industry self-regulation of World Wide Web content, by introducing a set of guidelines designed to protect young computer users from inappropriate or misleading banner advertising on web sites.

In July 1998 Lycos introduced its free SafetyNet service, which filtered out objectionable content from web site searches.

Doctor Mauldin left Lycos in 1998, when the company developed as a portal network with many regional sites, offering chat services, personal home pages, horoscopes and other non-core features.

In early 1998 Lycos had more than 20 million users, and nearly 500 advertisers were advertising in excess of 800 brands on its web site.

Early returns for fiscal 1998 showed sharp increases in revenue but no guarantee the company would finally get into the black.

In the first half of 1998 Lycos announced a wide range of product enhancements.

1998: Spanish telephone company Telefónica creates Telefónica Interactiva, an Internet company.

In July 1999 Lycos integrated auctions into its Lycos and Tripod Networks of web sites.

In November 1999 Telefónica Interactiva went public and changed its name to Terra Networks, S.A.

As a result, Lycos' prominence as a search tool declined, but that changed again in December 1999, when Lycos reached an agreement to invest in FAST search technology.

In December 1999 Lycos Asia launched a site in Singapore and planned to go online in Malaysia and the Philippines.

As of December 1999 Lycos claimed an audience of 29 million users.

At the beginning of 1999 Lycos was enjoying tremendous growth.

Lycos expanded internationally in the final four months of calendar 1999.

In preparation for the 1999 holiday shopping season, Lycos announced it would offer a range of new shopping services, including product reviews, comparison shopping, and consumer ratings.

Later in 1999 the company acquired ISPs and Internet portals in Brazil, Central America, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

In October 2004, the transaction closed for sale of half of the business and the company name was changed back to Lycos Inc.

In November 2006, Lycos began to roll out applications centered on social media, including the first “watch and chat” video application with the launch of its Lycos Cinema platform.

Salient Marketing, Inc. was founded in 2006 to provide internet marketing services to businesses in the Ottawa region and to clients across Canada.

In 2006, Lycos regained ownership of the Lycos trademark from Carnegie Mellon University.

During 2006, Lycos introduced several media services, including Lycos Phone which combined video chat, real-time video on demand, and an MP3 player.