By Sarah Left, 29 January 1999 00:30
NEWS In the latest multi-billion dollar Internet deal, portal giant Yahoo has bought Web community host GeoCities. GeoCities, based in Marina del Ray, California, is one of the world's most popular Internet sites, with over 19 million users. The company hosts Web space in a virtual community for its "homesteaders". According to US reports the $4.8bn deal will take the form of a stock swap. Martha Bennett, analyst at Giga Information Group, said the deal had not come as a shock. "I'm not surprised given the consolidation we've seen amongst Internet companies lately. The Holy Grail for all of these companies is getting as many users as possible through their portals, and the fewer portals there are the less choice for users," she said. Late last year AOL bought Netscape for $4.2bn and Web portal Excite was purchased by @Home earlier this month for $6.7bn. Pending regulatory approval, GeoCities and Yahoo hope to complete the deal by summer.
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