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To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (22078)	5/12/2000 10:46:00 PM
From: Jack Hartmann	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

ExciteAtHome Exodus Grows Fourth top official to leave company in high-level shakeout Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, May 12, 2000 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The resignations continue to pile up at ExciteAtHome. A spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that Fred Siegel, senior vice president of marketing, plans to quit next month to spend more time with his family in Philadelphia. It is the fourth notable departure at the Redwood City Internet company in recent weeks. Siegel, 46, a former QVC marketing executive, joined Excite two years ago before the portal merged with AtHome, the country's biggest provider of cable modem service. Siegel's resignation comes just days after former Chief Executive Officer Tom Jermoluk stepped down as chairman, taking a job with venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers. George Bell, a onetime documentary filmmaker who become chief executive of ExciteAtHome in January, took his place. In addition, Adam Grosser, president of subscriber networks, resigned two weeks ago, and David Pine, the company's top lawyer, is leaving in June to join Handspring, a competitor to 3Com's Palm spin- off. Both resignations became public two weeks ago. ``George Bell is building his own team,'' said Abhishek Gami, a financial analyst with William Blair & Co. in Chicago, who predicted in an interview Monday: ``We are going to hear about more management defections.'' In addition to the change in CEOs, analysts cited other reasons for the turnover. ExciteAtHome's stock has slipped 76 percent over the past 12 months, worse than most of its rivals. Yahoo is up 44 percent, Lycos is up 9 percent and America Online has fallen 24 percent during that span. ExciteAtHome shares edged up 13 cents yesterday to $19. Plus, the company reorganized its divisions last month and shifted its priorities. For instance, the company scrapped plans to break into the black this year so it could spend more money signing up customers and building the infrastructure to support them. Bell told analysts last month that he hopes to sign 3 million cable modem customers by year's end, up from 1.5 million at the end of March. ``The best thing we can do is be in heavy growth mode,'' Bell told analysts in a conference call. Although some stock watchers said the decision makes some sense in the long term, it could hurt ExciteAtHome's short-term stock price (and the value of executives' stock option packages), as investors begin paying more attention to Net firms' bottom lines. AT&T also announced plans in March to take control of the firm, buying out partners Comcast and Cox Communications for as much as $3 billion. Zona Research analyst Harry Fenik said AT&T's large bureaucracy could make it harder for ExciteAtHome executives to get swift approval for decisions. ``Being a senior executive at a place like ExciteAtHome is not all that pleasant when you have a parent like Ma Bell,'' Fenik said. ``It's a lot harder to accomplish anything.'' But ExciteAtHome spokeswoman Melissa Walia pointed out that turnover is common at Internet companies. Several of the executives left after joining AtHome shortly after it was founded in 1995. ``Four years is a long time,'' she said. In addition to the resignations, two people close to the company said Dean Gilbert, chairman of the company's AtHome Solutions subsidiary, has scaled back his work hours because of an illness in his family. But company spokeswoman Alison Bowman insisted he had no plans to leave. ``He is firmly in place at this company,'' she said. E-mail Todd Wallack at todd@sfgate.com. sfgate.com **************** ``The best thing we can do is be in heavy growth mode,'' Heavy growth mode? Certainly better choice of words could have been chosen. Doubling to 3M subscribers will be a tough challenge. It would be a milestone if Bell could make it. having a new management team and this goal allows for no transition breakin in this short term goal. I say 2.5M would have been fine. Jack