Lycos Europe, the forgotten portal site which left the tent and said “I am just going outside and may be some time” a few hundred years back, is up for sale (via PaidContent). Owned 32.1 percent by Telefonica and 20 percent by Bertelsmann, it’s now appointed Dresdner Kleinwort as its advisor following the inevitable “strategic review to evaluate its options”. First quarter revenues are EUR 16.2 million, respective to Q107 last year of EUR 20.0 million. Net losses were about EUR 5.9 million, down from a profit of EUR 7.5 million over the same period.

So the ideal play would be to roll-it up with Excite Europe, itself living on the smell of an oily wrag following an acquisition last year by GOADV, an Italian media company which specialises in generating qualified traffic and which at least has a few interesting ideas like its Mix start page. Either that or a long painful death, owned by some terrible advertising company.