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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (56175)	5/11/1999 8:05:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

FOCUS-GE's NBC to roll Internet assets into Xoom (Adds byline, new throughout) By Brendan Intindola NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - General Electric Co.'s <GE.N> NBC television unit said on Monday it agreed to merge certain Internet assets, including its Snap.com joint venture with CNET Inc. <CNET.O>, with Xoom.com, which will be renamed NBC Interactive. The deal will combine two fast-growing, but second-tier, Internet sites -- Snap and Xoom -- to create a Top 10 presence on the World Wide Web. The merged operation will look to grab a greater share of the online audience with an NBC advertising and branding agreement contained in the deal, company executives said. Tom Rodgers, NBC executive vice president, said NBC Interactive is aiming eventually to turn television viewers into online shoppers, first by driving them onto the Internet with network TV advertising, then compiling personal information on them as they sign-up for membership in online community and affinity groups. "This is all about how to take television viewers and make them Internet users ..., then connecting the community-interest sites Xoom specializes in ... to drive members from those user (groups) ... into buyers," said Rodgers, who will be chairman of the new company, to be called NBCi for short. NBCi will be NBC's exclusive Internet media network, providing Web search and navigation, e-mail, electronic commerce and community interaction services. The company will be the seventh most pervasive World Wide Web presence by combining No. 11 Snap.com and No.12 Xoom.com Inc <XMCM.O>, according to Chris Kitze, Xoom chairman who will become NBCi president and chief executive. Over the year ended in March, Snap's Internet reach grew 399 percent to 15.8 percent, making it the fastest-growing site, according to Media Metrix, Kitze said. Xoom.com had 246 percent growth over the same period, and in March of this year achieved a rate of 15.7 percent reach on the Internet, he said. The NBC online properties to be rolled into NBCi are NBC.com, Videoseeker.com, Interactive Neighborhood and a 10 percent ownership stake in the new CNBC.com to be launched later this summer, the companies said. The deal does not include MSNBC.com, the general news Internet site that is a 50-50 joint venture of NBC and Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O>. The transaction is subject to approval by Xoom.com shareholders. As part of the agreement, NBCi has agreed to buy $380 million in advertising from its sister company NBC Television Network over the next four years, with the possibility of an additional $500 million in advertising over the following six years. When the deal closes, expected by year-end, NBC will own 49.9 percent of NBCi and will hold six of 13 director seats. Assuming conversion of $370 million in convertible debt into equity -- to be issued to the new company by NBC -- NBC could end up with 53 percent of NBCi and the ability to name a majority of the board, while CNET and Snap.com option holders would own a 13 percent stake. XOOM.com shareholders and option holders would own a 34 percent stake. In afternoon Nasdaq trade, CNET shares soared $18 to $131.75, Xoom.com jumped $7.75 $82.875, and on the New York Stock Exchange NBC's parent General Electric slipped $0.875 to $109.06.