Yahoo! to Acquire GeoCities

Posted on January 28, 1999

Yahoo! Inc. has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire GeoCities a leader in personal publishing tools and Web-based communities. The acquisition combines two of the largest and most popular services on the Internet.

With more than 3.5 million sites authored and hosted on GeoCities, the company has built one of the Web's largest communities. GeoCities.com has a combined home/work reach of 33.4 percent (Media Metrix, December 1998). With the addition of GeoCities to the Yahoo! network, the companies expect their combined unduplicated home/work reach to exceed 58 percent, which would make it the second largest network of properties on the Web.

"GeoCities has built the Web's most popular and widely used community," said Tim Koogle, chairman and CEO, Yahoo!. "Through this acquisition, we are accelerating our global leadership position by combining two of the Web's strongest brands and most heavily used services into one powerful offering."

"We are thrilled to be joining the Yahoo! team," said Tom Evans, president and CEO of GeoCities. "This combination will allow us to accelerate our offerings to GeoCities and Yahoo! users worldwide."