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New Orleans, May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp. President Brian Roberts said he would be willing to acquire AT&T Corp.'s 56 percent voting stake in Excite At Home Corp. to gain control of the provider of fast Internet service on cable lines. Excite At Home's shares soared as much as 60 percent.
Comcast has told AT&T, due to become the No. 1 cable- television provider, that it would ``flip'' the terms of a March agreement for AT&T to acquire 60 million Excite shares owned by Comcast and Cox Communications Inc. for $48 each, or about $3 billion. AT&T, the largest U.S. long-distance phone company also agreed to boost its voting stake in Excite to 74 percent.
``If you want to flip the deal, we'd buy it,'' Roberts told the National Cable Television Association's annual meeting in New Orleans. ``Controlling that asset is very strategic to building your network.'' He didn't say more about his plans.
Comcast, the No. 3 U.S. cable-TV provider, and its rivals are spending billions of dollars to upgrade their networks for high- speed online connections, hundreds of TV channels and other new services. Excite At Home, based in Redwood City, California, is the largest U.S. provider of fast Web service on cable.
Shares of Excite rose 9 7/16 to 26 15/16 after reaching 28. Philadelphia-based Comcast fell 13/16 to 32 15/16 in early afternoon trading. AT&T, based in New York, rose 1/4 to 37 3/8.
May/09/2000 13:00 GMT |
