Merger with @Home Network
In January 1999, Excite agreed to merge with @Home Network in a transaction valued at $6.7 billion in stock, forming "Excite@Home", with George Bell as CEO. At this time, Excite was the sixth largest Internet portal by traffic.[36][37] AT&T, the largest shareholder of @Home Network, gained voting control of the combined company.[38]
In July 1999, the company acquired for $425 million in stock and reached a marketing deal with First Data.[39][40]
In October 1999, Excite launched Work.com.[41]
Also in October 1999, Excite acquired Webshots, an image sharing company, for $82.5 million in stock. In 2001, the founders bought back the company for $2.5 million.[42][43][44]
In November 1999, it launched Excite StoreBuilder, a small-business hosting service.[45]
In December 1999, Excite acquired Blue Mountain Arts, an e-card company, for $350 million in cash and 11 million shares of Excite stock.[46][47] In September 2001, it was sold to American Greetings for $35 million.[48][49]
In January 2000, the company launched a free internet access service.[50] That month, it partnered with Procter & Gamble to launch a site to market P&G products to teenagers.[51]
In March 2000, Excite sponsored Infiniti IndyCar Series driver Eddie Cheever, Jr., for the 2000 and 2001 racing seasons in an estimated $3 million deal.[52][53]
In May 2000, the company announced a web portal for mobile devices.[54]
In September 2000, after the company announced losses, George Bell resigned.[55][56][57]
In April 2001, the company announced that it needed financing to continue operations.[58]
In May 2001, Excite shut down the Magellan search engine.[59]
In June 2001, Excite@Home raised $100 million in convertible note financing from Promethean Capital Management and Angelo Gordon.[60] It also raised $85 million from AT&T.[61] That month, Cox Communications and Comcast announced that effective December 4, they would stop using Excite@Home as the exclusive provider of their broadband Net service.[58]
In August 2001, the company fired its auditor, Ernst & Young, after it raised doubts about the company's ability to continue as a going concern.[62] Promethean then demanded partial repayment of its note.[63] That month, Excite.com was the 7th most visited site on the world wide web, with 28.7 million unique visitors.[64]
On October 1, 2001, Excite@Home filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and sold its broadband internet access business to AT&T for $307 million in cash.[65]
In December 2001, iWon and InfoSpace acquired Excite for $10 million. The company was rebranded as Excite Network.[66]
In 2002, Itochu increased its interest in Excite Japan to 90%,[67] and became completely independent of At Home Corporation.[68]
