Terra Lycos Targets Serious Investors

Looking to increase revenue through new subscription services, Internet giant Terra Lycos will offer real-time financial market data and analysis, for about $200 per month.

The package “further delivers on our corporate strategy of transitioning users from free services to higher value paid services,” said Mark Stoever, Terra Lycos’ media vice president.

Last quarter, 64 percent of Terra Lycos’ revenue has come from advertising on its network of Web sites. As the ad slump drags on, the Spanish company, which has U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Mass., has sought new sources of income. The company’s other main business, Internet access, accounted for 12 percent of its revenues.

Users of the new service will access MetaStock Pro 7.2, a product suite from Equis International, a Reuters subsidiary, as well as QCharts, a service of Terra Lycos’ Quote.com. The combination will help investors research and track stocks, bonds, commodities, mutual funds, indices and currencies.

“This agreement opens up the analysis capabilities of MetaStock to a whole new group of today’s active traders,” said Allan McNichol, president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Equis International.

In addition to diversifying its sales mix, Terra Lycos will also make acquisitions when helpful to its bottom line. The company, formed last year with the multi-billion dollar merger of Terra Networks and Lycos, is sitting on $2 billion in cash which could be used to snap-up undervalued Internet properties.

Last month, it bought Decompras.com, a shopping site aimed at Mexican and Latin American shoppers. Terra Lycos also recently redesigned its pages to make them sites more attractive to large advertisers.

Shares of TRLY were up 0.15, or 2 percent, to 7.5 at midday. In the last 52 weeks, the issue has ranged from 4.5 to 20.625.