EXCITE, INC: Excite extends international presence to Australia,
Asia-Pacific
Presswire - September 08, 1998 13:23
M2 PRESSWIRE-8 September 1998-EXCITE, INC: Excite extends international presence to Australia, Asia-Pacific
(C)1994-98 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
-- Establishes joint venture with leading Australian publisher
Excite, Inc. (NASDAQ: XCIT) today announced Excite Asia Pacific with the formation of a joint venture between Excite and
LibertyOne, a J.B. Fairfax Company and leading Australian publisher. The partnership establishes Excite as the first portal to
form a joint-venture with a local partner in the Australian marketplace and strategically positions the company to expand into
the rest of the Asia-Pacific marketplace.
NEW COMPANY TO OFFER SERVICES FOR ALL ASIAN- PACIFIC AUDIENCES
The joint venture will leverage the strengths of each party to build an Excite-branded, advertising and commerce supported
Web portal with local English language content initially for the Australian market. The newly-established company will then
branch out to build localized portals for the New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore markets.
Ownership of the Joint Venture will be shared equally between Excite, Inc. and LibertyOne. LibertyOne, the interactive media
arm of the J.B. Fairfax Group owns the digital rights to important local and worldwide personalities, including Greg Norman.
LibertyOne, through its affiliation with the Fairfax Group and its digital sales group LibertyOne Online, has a comprehensive
understanding of developing and selling interactive media properties.
"Following on our Japanese joint-venture announced last year, this deal expands our presence and ability to move aggressively
in one of the largest online growth areas in the world the Asia-Pacific region," said George Bell, CEO, Excite, Inc. "The
combination of our strong Internet brand and services with LibertyOne's leading local marketing and sales and infrastructure
lets us execute immediately."
WORKING TOGETHER FOR ALL ASIAN-PACIFIC CONSUMERS
Each local service will extend all of Excites award-winning services, including search, personalization, channels, chat, email,
Excite Communities and commerce. The first service to launch will be the Australian service at excite.com.au in the fourth
quarter with localized services for each Asian-Pacific country to follow.
Graham Bristow, Managing Director, LibertyOne commented, "On a global basis, the Internet is one of the most dynamic
growth industries, particularly within the Asian Pacific region. We are ideally located in Australia to be at the forefront of this
boom and we believe that this joint venture with Excite will establish LibertyOne as the region's most progressive Internet
investment company."
About LibertyOne
LibertyOne Limited is global Internet investment group, with strategic investments and alliances that position the name
"LibertyOne" at the cutting edge of the Internet and Telecommunications industries. LibertyOne's major shareholder is J.B.
Fairfax Press Pty Ltd, part of the Marinya Media Group and one of Asia Pacifics largest publishing, printing and distribution
groups. The Fairfaxes are considered to be one of the foremost publishers in Australasia, upholding a family tradition that dates
back to the early 1800s.
LibertyOne achieves Internet synergy via its majority-owned subsidiary companies including:
Digital Rights International (DRI) - an Internet brand and electronic commerce management company that owns the rights to
high profile celebrities. The first project will be Greg Norman Interactive (GNI), which has been specifically established to
manage the use of Australian golfing sensation Greg Norman's name and likeness on the Internet.
Fastpac - An online communications company providing business-critical Internet outsourcing solutions for companies
conducting business on the Internet.
Comtel Technologies a world leader in cutting edge ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technology commercializing and
distributing specialist customer-premise ATM technology through a 20 year licensing agreement with the Telstra Corporation of
Australia.
About Excite
Founded in 1994, Excite, Inc. is a global media company offering consumers a free online service with a simple front end to the
Internet and extensive personalisation capabilities, and advertisers the best one-to-one marketing services available online. The
Excite Network consists of two of the largest brands on the Web, Excite and WebCrawler, and its subsidiaries;
Classifieds2000, MatchLogic, Inc., Excite Japan Co., Ltd. and Excite UK, Ltd. Personalised versions of Excite are available in
the UK (www.excite.co.uk), Germany (www.excite.de) and Japan (www.excite.co.jp). Localised versions of Excite are
available in France (www.excite.fr), The Netherlands (www.nl.excite.com), Sweden (www.se.excite.com) and Australia
(www.au.excite.com). Based in Redwood City, Calif., Excite, Inc. (NASDAQ:XCIT) has strategic relationships with America
Online, Inc., Apple Computer, Inc., CUC Investments Inc., Intuit Inc., Netscape Communications, Corp., Prodigy Internet
and Tribune Company.
Notable Awards
Excite UK was recently voted best web portal site by New Media Age Magazine and in the U.S. Excite was awarded the
prestigious "Editors Choice" in the Sept. 1998 issue of Ziff-Davis' PC Magazine, in a head-to-head comparison of leading
portal sites.
CONTACT: Narda Shirley/Elsa Weill, Gnash Communications Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)181 563 9446 e-mail: info@gnash.co.uk
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