1.  Yahoo!, the big Internet portal company, reported fourth-quarter profits in line with expectations.

2.  But the point is that an investment in Lycos, or in most other portal companies, is akin to making a wager at the tables in Tahoe.

3.  But those are the terms that Diller, chief executive of USA Networks, has extracted from Lycos Inc., the Internet portal company.

4.  He had spent all night writing a research report on an Internet portal company that Merrill was hoping to take public.

5.  He is an investor in and a director of iwon.com, an Internet portal company, but has no intention of taking a management position.

6.  However, voice portal company executives say their services are easier to use, safer for drivers and offer more features.

7.  In March, Yahoo, the Internet portal company, announced the creation of a business marketplace where industries could research and buy goods.

8.  Just last week, Lycos, another portal company, agreed to a merger with the electronic shopping units of USA Networks.

9.  Key elements of the AOL by Phone service have also been developed by the former Quack.com, a voice portal company AOL bought earlier this year.

10.  Like AOL, other leading portal companies have scrambled to buy up content they believe will attract new users to their sites.