Yupi was a

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

Internet portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

founded in 1997 by

Carlos Cardona Carlos Cardona (born 7 March 1974) is a Colombian internet entrepreneur best known for his Web 1.0 start-up Yupi Internet. He started his first company at the age of 18. His company went on to raise US$150 million from venture capitalists includ ...

and Camilo Cruz in Miami Beach, Florida.

Company history

Yupi Internet Inc. was founded in May 1996. Its flagship portal site, Yupi.com, was a Spanish-language content and services site. In 1999, Yupi acquired CiudadFutura, one of the world's first Spanish-language online communities, which at the time was supported by over 200 webmasters from around the world. The Yupi portfolio featured MujerFutura.com, a site catering to Spanish-speaking women. Yupi also owned sites dedicated to localized news, content and services; including multimedia site YupiTV. Yupi.com and its network of sites was headquartered in Miami Beach, Fla. and had offices in Bogotá (Colombia), Madrid and Barcelona (Spain), Mexico City (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and in Quito (Ecuador). The company's Senior Executive staff included: Oscar Coën (President and CEO), Marlena Delgado (COO), Rudy Vila (SVP Business Development - Entertainment), Jose Luque (Sr. VP Business Development and eCommerce), and Gustavo Morles (Sr. VP Business Development and Content), Camilo Cruz (First CEO and Co-Founder), Carlos A Cardona (CTO and Founder). By 1999 the company had raised as much as $150 million from venture capitalists including

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

and News Corp. It was planning an initial public offering in the spring of 2000 when the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

market crashed. Quickly running out of cash and without enough revenue to support its business, Yupi cut staff by 66% on December 19, 2000. In 2001, Yupi was acquired in a joint venture between

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and

Telmex Telmex is a Mexican telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico City that provides telecommunications products and services in Mexico. Telmex is still the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico. In addition to traditional fixed-line ...

(Teléfonos de México). Although MSN and Telmex never disclosed the price they paid in acquiring Yupi, analysts had estimated that it might have been about $50 million, much less than investors had poured in. In 2003, YupiMSN's operations were moved to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington.

References

External links

yupimsn.comCarlos CardonaMeasuring the Internet Economy, June 6, 2000. Report prepared by The University of Texas for Cisco Systems. See page 31True Believer, January 2001, Latin Trade.
{{Microsoft Web portals Social media companies of the United States Online mass media companies of the United States 2001 mergers and acquisitions