Tuesday, January 19, 1999
AtHome to buy Excite
Latest Internet deal tops AOL's
The Associated Press
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — AtHome Corp., a high-speed Internet provider, is set to announce as early as today it has acquired Excite Inc., one of the top Web search engines, according to published reports.
The stock transaction is worth about $6 billion, the New York Times reported in its Tuesday edition, a premium of Excite's market value of $3.4 billion.
The boards for both companies were meeting Monday evening to hammer out last-minute details. If a deal is reached, it could be announced in New York Tuesday morning.
Excite chief executive George Bell would not comment when reached by The Associated Press.
AtHome officials couldn't be reached for comment. AtHome spokesman Matt Wolfrom told MSNBC on the Internet, “I can't comment on any rumor or speculation.”
The deal, if successful, could give telecommunications giant AT&T Corp. ownership of one of the so-called portal companies that serve as entryways onto the Internet.
AtHome is controlled by TeleCommunications Inc., Cox Communications and several other investors. TCI is in the process of merging with AT&T Corp.
AT&T Corp. chief executive Michael Armstrong has stated he wants to use AtHome as a conduit for delivering a wide-range of communications services, including electronic commerce.
Excite, the Internet's second largest portal company behind Yahoo!, would provide AtHome with a wider range of online services than it now offers on its own.
Excite's shareholders are expected to own about 30 percent of the combined company, which would be known as Home.
AtHome has more than 330,000 customers for its service. The deal would give it access to Excite's more than 20 million registered users and to the company's content-development capabilities.
“With AtHome's existing stock valuation, it's been surprising that they haven't done more deals,” analyst Michael Harris of Kinetic Strategies Inc. said at the MSNBC Web site. “They've certainly got a huge war chest built up.”
Excite's stock closed at $67.50 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, while AtHome closed at $102. U.S. stock markets were closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
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