Waltham, Mass. – January 4, 2000 – Lycos, Inc. (NASDAQ: LCOS) announced today that it filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed public offering of 5,000,000 shares of its Common Stock. The Company has also granted the underwriters of the public offering an option to purchase up to 750,000 additional shares of Common Stock to cover over-allotments, if any. All of the shares are being offered for sale by the Company. The offering will be sold through underwriters led by Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Allen & Company Incorporated, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and Hambrecht & Quist LLC. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including potential acquisitions. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such State.
A copy of the preliminary prospectus may be obtained from the prospectus departments of:

Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation
11 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 325-2000

Goldman, Sachs & Co.
85 Broad Street
New York, NY 10004
(212) 902-1171

Merrill Lynch & Co.
World Financial Center – North Tower
250 Vesey Street
New York, NY 10281
(732) 885-2760

Allen & Company Incorporated
711 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 832-8000

Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.
Prospectus Department
245 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10167
(212) 272-1581

Chase H&Q
One Bush Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 439-3000

About Lycos, Inc.
Founded in 1995, Lycos, Inc. is a leading Web media company and owner of the Lycos Network, one of the most visited hubs on the Internet reaching nearly one out of every two Web users. The Lycos Network is a unified set of Web sites that attracts a diverse audience by offering a variety of services, including leading Web navigation resources, homepage building and other Web community services and a comprehensive shopping center. The Lycos Network is composed of premium sites: Lycos.com, Tripod, WhoWhere, Angelfire, MailCity, HotBot, HotWired, Wired News, Webmonkey, Suck.com, Sonique, Quote and Gamesville.com. Lycos.com (http://www.lycos.com), “Your Personal Internet Guide,” is dedicated to helping each individual user locate, retrieve and manage information tailored to his or her personal interests. Headquartered near Boston in Waltham, Mass., Lycos, Inc. is a global Internet leader with a major presence throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America.