Reuters, the financial information company, has started making investments in Internet start-ups in Europe similar to stakes already taken in Yahoo! and Infoseek, the US Internet portals.
Mr Peter Job, chief executive, said that rising Internet share prices were making it harder to replicate its earlier Silicon Valley investments. These were undertaken as part of deals in which Internet sites displayed Reuters' news services.
Reuters said this week it had sold most of its initial 2.5 per cent stake in Yahoo! which would be worth about $770 million (€679 million). It is thought to have left about 100,000 shares - worth about $16 million.
"We have tended to move our sights towards Europe and have made a couple of investments this year," said Mr Job. He added that the main point of such investments was to enable Reuters to develop a profitable Internet strategy.
"We do not aim to create shareholder value by having long-term investments. We are there to understand the operations. There is clearly a `Klondike rush' for the Internet, and not everyone will strike gold," he stated.
