Senior Executives Fleeing From ExciteAtHome
Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, May 9, 2000
ExciteAtHome, whose stock has fallen 59 percent this year, is also suffering a brain drain.
At least three senior executives have left the Redwood City Internet company in recent weeks, and at least one more is rumored to have a foot out the door.
Yesterday, the company said Tom Jermoluk, who stepped down as chief executive in January, will also hand the chairman's title to Chief Executive Officer George Bell. Jermoluk, who will remain on the board of directors, is reportedly negotiating to become a partner of the Palo Alto venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has ties to ExciteAtHome.
In addition, Adam Grosser, president of subscriber networks, quit two weeks ago. David Pine, the company's senior vice president and general counsel, is leaving in June to join Handspring, which makes handheld computers that compete with Palm.
And others could be leaving soon, observers say. ExciteAtHome, which runs the fifth-most-popular network of Internet sites and is the largest provider of cable modem service, just completed a corporate reorganization last week. Shares have slid 78 percent over the past 12 months. ExciteAtHome closed at $17.50, down 44 cents yesterday.
``There are a bunch of resumes on the street,'' said Sean Doherty, an AtHome co-founder who now runs Urban Media Communications, a Palo Alto startup.
Doherty pointed out that all three executives who are leaving originally worked for AtHome, which provides superfast Internet service over cable television lines. The company became ExciteAtHome when it bought Excite, an Internet portal that competes with Yahoo and Lycos.
Indeed, ExciteAtHome just launched television commercials in four cities yesterday, including San Francisco, that solely promote the ``Excite'' brand -- rather than ExciteAtHome.
The company ``is kind of turning into Excite,'` Doherty said.
But ExciteAtHome spokeswoman Melissa Walia says the company simply prefers to use the Excite name for national branding campaigns to promote all its services.
She said the company only promotes the AtHome name to promote the cable modem service where it is available.
Financial analyst Abhishek Gami said he thinks several Excite executives could also leave as the company refocuses its business.
ExciteAtHome already has throttled down efforts to compete head on with Yahoo and Lycos. The company recently overhauled the Internet gateway for its cable modem customers but won't say when it will do the same for its public Internet site, Excite.com.
E-mail Todd Wallack at todd@sfgate.com
sfgate.com
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Reminds me of the Everly Brothers song Problems.
To think AT&T's Armstrong was one the top 50 managers of the year by Worth magazine.
Wonder what an overhaul of Excite would look like. Yahoo.2?
Jack |
