HAARLEM, Netherlands (FTMW) -- Lycos Europe [DE:932728 said it will take a charge of up to ?700 million after the value of investments and recent purchases all but evaporated in the tech slump. "If events and circumstances indicate that the decline in value of these assets is other than temporary, Lycos Europe must record a charge," the company said. The charges are mainly related to Lycos' purchase last year of Scandinavian rival Spray Networks and French rival MultiMania. Lycos must take as a loss the difference between what it paid for the companies and what they're now worth. Shares in Lycos Europe, a venture of Bertelsmann and TerraLycos [US:TRLY traded 3.5 percent lower in mid-morning Neuer Markt trade at ?1.09. The stock has tanked about 90 percent in the past year and is well off a high north of ?20 hit in early 2000. Lycos announced the charge as part of its fiscal fourth quarter earnings, which showed sales slowed over the previous quarter. In the three months through June, revenue fell to ?40.2 million from ?41.6 million in the fiscal third quarter. The figure more than doubled over the same quarter a year earlier, Lycos said. The company's loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization shrunk to as much as ?41 million in the final fiscal quarter from ?45.4 million in the fiscal third. Andrew Bulkeley is a correspondent in Berlin for FTMarketWatch
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