MONSTER NEWS> Excite@Home May be Back On the Market--and Yahoo! is Looking
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 1999--Little more than two months after the $6.7 billion Excite@Home (ATHM) merger was completed, Excite@Home may be back on the market, reports Business Week Online (www.businessweek.com/today.htm). Only this time, uberportal Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) could be the acquirer. According to sources close to the companies, Excite@Home and Yahoo have held talks over the last six weeks about a possible deal in which Yahoo would buy Excite@Home for some amount greater than its current market value of $17 billion. Yahoo would not only gain devotees of the No. 6 portal but it would also get a much-needed broadband play.
Sources add, however, that Yahoo doesn't want to operate an infrastructure company like @Home, which provides high-speed Internet access over cable lines. And AT&T Corp. (T), the controlling shareholder in Excite@Home, wants to retain influence over the @Home business. So exactly what would happen with @Home is still up in the air. One scenario, according to sources, is for Yahoo to absorb Excite and spin out @Home into an independent company in which Yahoo and AT&T would have sizable stakes. That would provide AT&T with the control it wants and it would give Yahoo a prime position as the Net goes broadband. Another scenario, according to one source, would see AT&T take the @Home business and combine it with its WorldNet Internet access business.
Sources close to all three companies describe the recent talks as preliminary and caution that much work is yet to be done before a deal could come together.
Note: The entire text of this story is available now on Business Week Online at www.businessweek.com/today.htm or America Online (Keyword: BW).
Greg |
