Lycos Europe, whose shareholders on Friday voted to liquidate most of the company after failing to find a buyer, is selling the first of its other remaining assets to United Internet AG, the German parent of the Sedo domain marketplace and 1&1 domain registrar. Lycos is getting a not-insubstantial €34 million for Earnings: Freefalling Lycos Europe Plans Cost Cuts, Clock Ticking On Sale” title=“United Domains”>United Domains, adding to the €50 million shareholders will get back on December 19 through the liquidation. The remaining assets on sale - Lycos’ shopping portal and Danish website.

Some customers who had registered domains through Lycos Europe’s United Domains, of which there are 1.1 names, had become concerned for their websites’ future, but the transition to such a large domain group as United would seem to secure their safety. United Domains founders Florian Huber, Alexander Helm and Markus Eggensperger will own 15 percent of the new outfit. Release.

Lycos Europe, which had been losing money and users for years, finally concluded last month that no-one was going to buy it, after starting a strategic review in April. During the sale process, Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) took Lycos Europe to court in its native Netherlands, complaining the CEO had not explored all the options for the sell-off. About 500 of 700 staff are now losing their jobs. Lycos is based in Germany and Holland and has a UK ad sales team, which it’s thought also sells for sites including IMDB and About.com, but the Lycos UK content operations are outsourced to a third-party here. Release.

Lycos Europe has always been a separate company to America’s Lycos Inc, but both sites have suffered since they were the web’s most-visited back in the portal hey-days of 1999. The US company has changed hands twice since then and the European venture has failed to capitalise on the online ads boom - though it still trumpets recent product releases like Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Answers clone Lycos iQ, it had been losing money at a particularly chronic rate in the last two years. Emblematic of the state of affairs, Lycos Europe last year paid Lycos Inc $5.2 million to renew its license to use the brand name, while entering the US itself under a completely different name, Jubii.

The company started a strategic review in April but, though Mohn suggested AOL (NYSE: TWX) and German ad net Tomorrow Focus were keen to bid around €200 million, it’s clear the sale process was flailing.

One option may have been to reunite the disparate Lycos regions - we received word anonymously in August that one suitor was teaming with Lycos Inc’s Korean owner for a bid, but the banks were said to have walked away, citing the company’s poor performance and unrealistic target of turning a profit by 2011. The last prices we heard being talked about were €100 to €150 million.

• Lycos Europe Opts For Liquidation, €50 Million Paid Back To Shareholders
• Lycos Europe To Shut Down After Failing To Find Buyer
• Earnings: Freefalling Lycos Europe Plans Cost Cuts, Clock Ticking On Sale