Espotting back on Lycos.Europe!

[heini]

In a totally surprising move Lycos.Europe has signed a new deal pan-european with Espotting.
Espotting is going to provide PPC listings to Lycos channel and directory sections.

Only last month Overture had taken over Espotting's place on Lycos websearch serps.

Story: Yahoo.de [de.news.yahoo.com]

[heini]

Details:
Contract is starting September lasting 2 years, Lycos sites involved are Belgium, Denmark, Germany, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Volume of the deal is given as 17,5 Mill. Euro.

Listings will appear marked as sponsored links, 2 above regular listings, 2 in the middle, on both Lycos channel and Lycos directory pages.

Golem.de [golem.de]

[heini]

OUCH - Lycos...
Apparently the contract between Lycos and Espotting, announced only in July has been renegotiated.

Now espotting will serve listings for three years. The sum Espotting is granting Lycos however remains at 17,5 Mill Euro.
In effect Lycos just got cheaper.

The CFO and COO of Lycos Europe, Uwe Intat, leaves the Company, as announced yesterday evening.

OUCH, Lycos.

[Rumbas]

Sorry heini, am I reading this right?

Is it not a good thing for Espotting that they are still the PPC provider on Lycos? Think so.

However, I see your point about Lycos just got cheaper - in effect they handed Espotting another year free of charge, right?

Phew, difficult to keep up, eh? ;)

[heini]

Yes, that's the way I'm reading this [dgap.de].
Originally Espotting had to pay 17,5 Mill for 2 years, now they get three years for the same price.

In effect this is a hefty deevaluation of Lycos adspace....

[Torben Lundsgaard]

Is Lycos in trouble? Why are they giving away one year?

[heini]

>trouble
When was the last time they were not in trouble?

Despite massive cost reduction they keep losing money every quarter.
The worst blow was Bertelsmann cancelling the advertising deal this spring, worth some 600 Mill. Euro if memory serves me.

At the same time they started to try and generate new revenue from paid services and content, just like everybody else.
Just take the search functions: Overture PPC on serps, Espotting on directory and channel pages, paid directory listings, repackaged Fast PartnerSite.

And still they are losing money.

Now Bertelsmann has fired Middelhoff and starts to reorientate their strategy back from new media to traditional areas.
Bertelsmann already tries to sell BOL, one of the largest online booksellers worldwide.

I would not at all be surprised to see Bertelsmann getting rid of Lycos Europe too.
Would Telefonica, majority owner buy the Bertelsmann shares? Would anybody be willing to further invest in Lycos Europe?

[lazerzubb]

The reason that they renegotiated the contract, was that Lycos had shown bad conversions, and Espotting would like the ability to withdraw ads from Lycos only but be able to show them on other partners, that was the main reason and Espotting was very happy with the deal.

I think this is one of the great things that Espotting serves which Overture doesn't.

And if my sources tell me right Espotting will go live on Lycos today or tomorrow.

[heini]

>Espotting was very happy with the deal

Well, obviously. This new agreement is to their advantage only, while Lycos Europe has to accept a 33% decrease off their expected revenue.