Daum sells finance info unit of U.S. subsidiary

Daum Communications Corp., Korea’s second-largest Internet portal operator, said yesterday its U.S. subsidiary Lycos Inc. has sold its financial information unit. Lycos sold Quote.com to U.S. financial information vendor Interactive Data Corp. for $30 million, Daum said in a statement. Daum took over Lycos, an American Internet portal, in December 2004 in a bid to enter the U.S. market. Daum said the sell-off of Quote.com completes the restructuring of its overseas business units. The sale is also intended to strengthen Daum’s main growth engines ― Internet communities and media services ― which take advantage of Lycos brands such as the Web publishing service Tripod, the homepage service Angelfire and wired news services. The social-networking site Lycos Planet, whose Korean parent opened to U.S. users last October, has attracted around 100,000 users since its launch. Following the sell-off, Daum will reinforce its move to readjust its shares in local subsidiaries, experts project. The company also plans to start its e-mail service, Hanmail, and sell its e-mail marketing solutions in the Untied States this year. by Seo Ji-eun