Lycos Europe N.V. (HQ? in Gutersloh, Germany) agreed to acquire 100%
of BuyCentral S.A.S., which operates a comparison shopping platform in
France and Italy, on approximately January 8, 2004.  I am interested
in the purchase price for the acquisition including the currency (e.g.
cash or stock) ("financial details were not disclosed") and any
additional information about BuyCentral's operations (how many
customers, any issued patents) in addition to the below.  Access to an
M&A database, or regulatory approval documents, or pricipals in the
transaction could be avenues for the information.  I look forward to
your answer.

What I already know:
From what I can understand through Google translations, BuyCentral (1)
has revenues in the low single digit millions of Euros (which I would
interpret as 1-3mm) for 2003, (2) achieved profitability in May 2001
before its sale to Bestofmicro.com (3) will make Lycos the number two
e-commerce operator in France.  The acquisition is expected to close
in January 2004, subject to regualatory approval.

"With this acquisition the strategy of LYCOS Europe consolidates to
extend our supply of Premium services in Internet and to accelerate
our growth in the field of the electronic commerce" it declared in an
official notice Jürgen Galler, Chief of a main directorate of Lycos
Spain.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.repubblica.it/supplementi/af/2004/01/19/multimedia/024ilterz.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbuycentral%2Blycos%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff