Excite@Home - Excite, 1994-1998, @home, 1995-1998, Excite@home, 1999-2001

Excite@Home was formed in January 1999 when high-speed Internet access provider @Home acquired the Excite Network for $6.7 billion. At the time Excite had 20 million registered users for its Internet portal and search engine services. @Home had 330,000 subscribers signed up for its high-speed Internet access service. @Home also had cable distribution agreements in place reaching 60 million homes. However, since many of those systems had not yet been upgraded to offer high-speed Internet access, @Home was available to only about 13 million homes at the beginning of 1999.

The acquisition was fueled by several factors. Other portal consolidations were taking place, including the acquisition of Netscape Communications by America Online and Walt Disney Co.'s investment in Infoseek Corp. @Home was willing to pay a premium for access to Excite's customer base, valuing the company well above its market capitalization. The new combined company was to be called At Home, formerly the name of @Home Network's parent company and now Excite@Home's parent. It would have about 1,200 employees and projected revenue of $2 billion by 2002. CEO Thomas Jermoluk predicted operating margins in the range of 30 to 35 percent. George Bell, formerly CEO of Excite, became president of Excite@Home.

The acquisition enabled @Home to transmit across multiple platforms, including both dial-up and broadband. It also gave cable operators an incentive to upgrade their cable systems to handle two-way Internet traffic. Through Excite, @Home would be made available as a dial-up service in areas where cable modem service was not yet available.

At the time of the acquisition, AT&T was in the process of merging with Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). Following that merger, AT&T became the largest shareholder with a 26-percent majority stake in Excite@Home and 58-percent voting control of the company. AT&T also was the preferred provider for Excite's dial-up service through AT&T WorldNet. WorldNet, which was AT&T's Internet service provider (ISP), had about 2.3 million customers in early 1999, 1.3 million of which were residential. Other major shareholders in Excite@Home included cable operators Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp.