Lycos Europe has outlined its future business plans to shareholders in the face of disappointing interest from prospective buyers.

The firm has carried out extensive research into its business, and found very limited interest in an acquisition. Where there had been interest, the valuations were too low to consider.

Lycos now says that its European portal and web hosting business will go into liquidation, although some other areas of the company may still be sold.

"The conclusion of the restructuring evaluation is that it will be very difficult for the European portal business and the web hosting business to become profitable," the firm said in a note to shareholders.

Lycos added that, following liquidation, the company's "consolidated losses are expected to decrease substantially, which will lead to a substantial decrease of cash burn".

The move will need to be approved at a shareholder meeting next month, but is likely to go ahead.