It’s the end of the road. After putting itself on the auction block in April, Lycos Europe has finally conceded what had become increasingly clear - no-one wants to buy the ailing portal. So it confirmed Wednesday morning it will wind up its portal and its web hosting activities. It’s now about asset stripping - the company said it still wants to sell its domain names, its Danish business and its shopping sites. As a result, Lycos Europe will give back €50 million to its shareholders, but about 500 of 700 staff will reportedly lose their jobs. All subject to a December 12 shareholders meeting. As the Web 2.0 fraternity might say, “epic fail”. Release.

SEE ALSO: Telefonica Complains Lycos Europe Sell-Off Too Slow

A JV between Telefonica’s Terra internet arm (which owns 32 percent), and Bertelsmann (which is thought to own 20 percent), 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 CEO and Bertelsmann family heir Christoph Mohn, who himself owns 12 percent, 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.