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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Vendit™ who wrote (31605)	9/26/1999 10:55:00 PM
From: Tom Tallant	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 41369

AOL and Excite Update Kevin Prigel Sep 26 1999 Since I broke the rumor about America Online's talks with AtHome yesterday, which includes the purchase of Excite, I have been bombarded by questions. The most frequent question is, who is your source? While I can not reveal my sources, I can say that this source provided the information on Microsoft spinning off Expedia last month. I believe them to be reliable, and if they say that AOL is in talks to acquire Excite, they are. Next, comes the question of my ulterior motives. As a rule I try not to own trading positions in the stocks that I discuss frequently on StreetAdvisor.com. I do not currently have positions in America Online, Excite AtHome, or AT&T. Finally, if the talks are taking place, is the deal certain? No, not by any means. The hold-up that I've heard is coming from the portion of the agreement that covers marketing and advertising revenues. I believe that America Online will continue to stick its ground and insist on 100%, while AT&T is proposing that AOL get around $5 of the monthly access fee and 75% of marketing and ad revenues. If the deal does happen, I am almost certain that the Excite sale will be a part of it. It makes no sense for AtHome to hold on to Excite if AOL will become its standard interface. The only complication with this is that AtHome will have to account for reclassify the investment as a purchase, creating a massive amount of goodwill, and a restatement of last years earnings. As long as AtHome sells Excite for more than it bought it for, this reclassification will not create a future drag on earnings. That's all for now, we'll see how the story develops in the morning. To keep appraised of the latest developments in this, and all of our stories sign-up for our newsletter with the "free home delivery" link on the left side of the screen.