Excite Portal may sell

Needs $75 million+ to make it through 2001

[Mike_Mackin]

AT&T sees $280 - $320 Million hit. on ExciteAtHome
[www0.mercurycenter.com...]

ExciteAtHome said last week it needs between $75 million and $80 million to make it through the year and is considering several options, including selling off the Web portal or selling the backbone of its network to AT&T and leasing it back.

[usatoday.com...]

[grnidone]

I had heard about this about a month prior. When everything was doing very well, Excite bought some smaller companies. Then, At&t took over Excite.

From what it sounds like on my end, Excite and At&t are refocusing their structure so everyone is putting effort to the same goals. AT&T is focusing on broadband in a big way, and some of the companies Excite took over when it was doing well do not conform to that goal.

I was under the impression that Excite was going to sell off those parts, not necessarily that AT&T was going to get rid of Excite altogether. Time will tell.

-G

[NFFC]

"Our media operations are draining our cash resources," Chief Financial Officer Mark McEachen told analysts during a conference call. "We have a number of options available to us, among them the sale of our media operations."

More here [news.excite.com]