AtHome to buy Excite ˜ sources say
MSNBC
Jan. 18 ˜ AtHome Corp. is set to announce as early as Tuesday that it has
agreed to acquire Excite Corp., sources tell MSNBC. Terms of the deal, which
was confirmed by an individual familiar with AtHome board proceedings, aren‚t
clear, but Excite‚s share price ($67 1/2) sets its market value at about $3.5
billion.
EXCITE, the Internet‚s second largest portal company behind Yahoo!,
is expected to provide AtHome with a far fuller range of online services than
it now offers on its own.
AtHome, which is controlled by TeleCommunications Inc., Cox
Communications, Comcast Corp. and several other investors, has snared some
330,000 subscribers to its service in North America to date.
That‚s a paltry number compared to the likes of America Online and its
roughly 14 million subscribers, but industry executives and analysts believe
high-speed Internet access will proliferate rapidly. What‚s more, AtHome‚s
close affiliation with many different cable companies gives it a leg up in
increasing its base of subscribers.
For Excite, operating in the hefty shadow of rival Yahoo!, a merger
could provide a new and potent avenue for increasing its share of the online
audience. In a recent Media Metrix ranking, Excite was the sixth most-visited
site on the Internet, with a 20 percent reach ˜ about half that of Yahoo!
(Emory Thomas Jr., Bob Sullivan and David Bowermaster contributed to
this story.)
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