Troubled Yupi.com Sold.

T1msn, a joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and Telmex, announced the launch of its Spanish-language portal for the U.S. Hispanic market, with the announcement of plans to acquire Yupi Internet Inc., a leading portfolio of Spanish-language Internet sites.

Building on momentum of the number of U.S. Hispanics visiting MSN and T1msn’s No. 1 reach in Mexico, and the No. 1 position of MSN Hotmail with Spanish-speaking users in Latin America, T1msn is launching Yupi/MSN, a Spanish-language portal. Through the acquisition, T1msn, whose audience has grown to more than 5 million unique users since its launch just over a year ago, is expanding its services beyond Mexico, to all Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States and Latin America.

“MSN and Yupi share a vision of bringing the richest and most diverse Internet experience to Spanish speakers throughout the Americas,” said Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of MSN and the Personal Services Business Group at Microsoft. “The strong MSN portfolio of integrated Internet services, such as MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger, will combine with leading Spanish content from T1msn and the unique, rich content that Yupi provides to offer a premier online service for Spanish-speaking consumers in U.S. Hispanic and Latin American online markets.”

“T1msn has a solid reputation of delivering unique Spanish-language content to consumers, and Telmex has expertise in understanding U.S. and Latin American consumers as well as proven experience in sales and marketing in both regions,” said Arturo Elias Ayub, chairman of the board at T1msn and vice president of Strategic Ventures, Communication and Institutional Relations at Telmex. “With the talented team and compelling offerings provided by the Yupi network, I am confident that together we will create the most rewarding Internet experience for Hispanic consumers and become the leading Internet destination for Spanish-speaking users in the Americas.”

Under the terms of the acquisition, Yupi Internet will combine with T1msn’s operations and the new company will operate as T1msn in Mexico and as Yupi/MSN in other North and South American markets. T1msn will continue to offer users services such as MSN Messenger Service and the MSN Hotmail Web-based e-mail service, which has nearly 8 million consumers using the service in Spanish. This will be supplemented by the range of Spanish-language content offered by Yupi, which includes local news sites for Spanish-speaking consumers and a specialized site focused on the interests of Spanish-speaking women.