New Delhi : In what is being termed by analysts as a good strategic move, Internet portal giant-Yahoo! is acquiring Kimo.com, a leading Taiwanese portal, for a price of approximately $146 million, from the financial information and system integration company, Systex. According to information posted on the Yahoo! site, it will issue 2.25 million additional shares to buy all of unlisted Kimo's shares from Systex.The acquisition, which should come through within eight weeks, will allow Yahoo! to get a firm footing in Taiwan, where until now it has lagged behind strong local players.
Kimo, with more than 40 million page views per day and 4.7 registered members, is one of Taiwan's most popular Web portals. It recently became the first Asian portal to reach break-even point in the third quarter this year. Its third quarter revenues grew 400 per cent year-on-year to $5.8 million.
Yahoo! paid roughly 15 times Kimo's revenues, most of which come from advertising and sponsorships, this year, to acquire the portal. Kimo.com offers news content, e-mail, chat rooms, and special interest sites targeting online Chinese consumers in Asia, North America and Europe.Earlier this year, Kimo.com announced strategic tie-ups with mainland Chinese portal Netease.com and Netvigator, the Internet service provider of Hong Kong's PCCW-HKT, both of which will provide content for its site.
This is acquisition is a part of Yahoo!'s strategy to strengthen its foothold in Asia Pacific. In June, Yahoo! had taken a five per cent stake in the online business of Taiwan's China Times media group, as part of a strategic alliance on Website content.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.