See @Home Network for more information about that company. @Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002.

For the term referring to an elevation in energy level, see Excited state. Excitation is an elevation in energy level above an arbitrary baseline energy state

Excite
Excite Homepage
URL	http://www.excite.com/
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Web Portal
Registration	Free, Pay to Upgrade
Owner	IAC Search & Media
Launched	1994 as Architext
Current status	Active

Excite is an Internet portal, and as one of the "dotcoms" of the 1990s (along with Yahoo! and Netscape), was once one of the most recognized brands on the Internet. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it A web portal is a site that provides a single function via a web page or site The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks A web portal is a site that provides a single function via a web page or site A Dot-com company, or simply a dot-com, is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a Website that uses the popular The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company

Excite offers a variety of services, including search, web-based email, instant messaging, stock quotes, and a customizable user homepage. The homepage (often written as home page) or main page is the URL or local file that automatically loads when a Web browser starts and when The content is collated from over 100 different sources.

History

Excite was founded as Architext in 1994 by Graham Spencer, Joe Kraus, Mark Van Haren, Ryan McIntyre, Ben Lutch and Martin Reinfried, who were all computer science students at Stanford University (except for Kraus, who was a political science major). Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Graham Spencer was a co-founder of the Excite search engine along with Joe Kraus. Joe Kraus is the founder of Excite, JotSpot, and DigitalConsumer Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in Political science is a branch of Social sciences that deals with the theory and practice of Politics and the description and analysis of Political systems In July 1994 International Data Group paid them $100,000 to develop an online service. International Data Group ( IDG) is a technology media research and event management organization

In January 1995, Vinod Khosla (also a former Stanford student), a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, arranged $250,000 first round backing with $1. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Pune, India) is an Indian-American Venture capitalist. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB is a Venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley. 5 million in ten months. Geoff Yang of Institutional Venture Partners brought in an additional $1. 5 million in financing. Excite was formally launched in December of 1995.

In January 1996, George Bell joined Excite as its Chief Executive Officer. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator Excite also bought two search engines (Magellan and WebCrawler), and signed exclusive distribution agreements with Netscape, Microsoft, Apple, and other companies. WebCrawler is a Metasearch engine that blends the top search results from Google, Yahoo!, Live Search (formerly MSN Search) Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics On April 4, 1996, Excite went public with an initial offering of two million shares priced at $8. Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Initial public offering (IPO, also referred to simply as a "public offering" is when a company issues Common stock or shares to the public for the first 50 per share, and in June of 1997, Intuit, maker of Quicken and TurboTax, purchased a 19% stake in Excite — a deal worth $40 million — and finalized a seven-year partnership deal. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Intuit Inc ( is an American Software company that develops financial and Tax preparation software and related services for Small Intuit Inc ( is an American Software company that develops financial and Tax preparation software and related services for Small Intuit Inc ( is an American Software company that develops financial and Tax preparation software and related services for Small

On October 16, 1997, Excite purchased comparison shopping service company Netbot for around $300 million. Events 456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar At the same time Intuit announced the launch of "Excite Business & Investing". Later that year a deal with Ticketmaster to provide direct online ticketing was finalized. Ticketmaster is a ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world

In December 1998, Yahoo! was in negotiations with Excite to purchase them for $5. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) 5 billion to $6 billion. However, prompted by Kleiner Perkins, @Home Network's Chairman and CEO Thomas Jermoluk met with Excite’s Chairman and CEO George Bell on December 19, and Excite was subsequently acquired by @Home Network on January 19, 1999. @Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002. A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator Events 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar)

Excite@Home

Main article: @Home Network

The $6. @Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002. 7 billion merger of Excite and @Home became one of the largest mergers of two Internet companies ever; it combined @Home's high speed internet services and existing portal with Excite’s search engine and portal. The new portal also moved towards personalized web portal content, a concept now commonplace.

The new company became "Excite@Home", though the stock symbol and the company's name in regulatory filing records remained as "At Home Corporation" (ATHM). As a side effect of the deal, Tom Jermoluk stepped down as CEO of Excite@Home but remained Chairman of the Board, and Excite’s George Bell, who was the President of the Excite division of @Home, became the new CEO of Excite@Home.

Following the merger, the Excite division purchased iMall for about $425 million in stock, and also online greeting card company Blue Mountain Arts for 11. An e-card is similar to a Postcard or Greeting card, with the primary difference being that it is created using Digital media instead of paper or other 2 million shares of stock (approximately $430 million worth), and paid $350 million in cash. Excite also acquired photo-sharing company Webshots for $82. Webshots is a large free online Photo sharing site owned by American Greetings. 5 million in shares of stock. Excite furthermore paid for sponsorship of Infiniti Indy car driver Eddie Cheever, Jr., through the 2000 and 2001 racing seasons for an undisclosed amount. Infiniti is the luxury car division of Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co Edward "Eddie" McKay Cheever Jr (born January 10, 1958) is an American racing driver who raced for almost thirty years in Formula One

However, the merger between Excite and @Home fell disastrously short of expectations. Online advertising revenue plummeted. On September 21, 2000 George Bell announced plans to step down as CEO by March of 2001. Events 1217 - The Estonian tribal leader Lembitu of Lehola was killed in a battle against Teutonic Knights. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Stock value had dropped 90% during his tenure.

On April 23, 2001, Patti S. Events 215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Hart, the former CEO of Telocity, joined Excite@Home as its third CEO (and @Home's fourth). In the same announcement, George Bell resigned and left the company completely. The company also reported first-quarter net loss of $61. 6 million, or 15 cents per share, on revenue of $142. 8 million compared with a loss of $4. 6 million, or 1 cent, on revenue of $138 million in the same period the prior year.

On June 11, 2001, Excite@Home announced that it had raised $100 million in financing from Promethean Capital Management and Angelo Gordon & Co. Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Part of the deal was that the loan was repayable immediately if Excite@Home stock was delisted by Nasdaq. The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American Stock exchange. The loan, structured as a note convertible into shares of Excite, had an interest rate of zero.

By August 20, 2001, Excite@Home had replaced its auditors Ernst & Young with PricewaterhouseCoopers and received a demand for the immediate repayment of $50 million in debt from Promethean Capital Management and Angelo Gordon & Co. Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Ernst & Young is one of the largest Professional services firms in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers (or PwC is one of the world's largest Professional services firms Furthermore, Cox Cable and Comcast announced that they would separate from Excite@Home by the first quarter of 2002. Cox Communications, also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital Comcast Corporation ( is the largest Cable television company the second largest Internet service provider and (according to the company the fourth largest telephone

On September 13, 2001, Excite@Home sold Blue Mountain Arts for $35 million to American Greetings - less than 5% of what it had paid less than two years earlier. Events 509 BC - The Temple of Jupiter on Rome 's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. American Greetings Corporation Inc is the world's largest publicly-traded Greeting card company

On October 1, 2001, Excite@Home filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the U. Events 331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the Bankruptcy laws of the United States S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. The company's remaining 1,350 employees were laid off over the following months into the first quarter of 2002. Layoff is the temporary suspension or permanent Termination of employment of an Employee or (more commonly a group of employees for Business reasons As part of the agreement, @Home's national high-speed fiber network access would be sold back to AT&T for $307 million in cash. At Home Liquidating Trust became the successor company to Excite@Home, charged with the sale of all assets of the former company.

At the end of 2001, the Webshots assets were purchased by the company's founders for $2. 4 million in cash from the Bankruptcy Court.

Excite Network

During the collapse of Excite@Home, Irvington, New York–based iWon.com had quietly started designing a new, yet familiar, Excite website hoping that it could acquire the Excite. IWoncom is a free Casual game site and web portal that offers the chance to win cash and prizes through activities such as clicking through com domain name and brand in the course the bankruptcy proceedings. In Computer networking, a domain name is a name given to a collection of network devices that belong to a domain which is an administrative space managed according IWon. com made a $10 million joint bid with Seattle's InfoSpace to purchase the domain and brand. Infospace ( a dot com pioneer provides metasearch and Private-label Internet search services for consumers and businesses On November 28, the court accepted the bid and gave iWon less than three weeks to launch a new Excite portal. For the town in Argentina, see 28 de Noviembre. Events

"I feel like a guy who lived through a hurricane, got pounded and pounded and managed to survive when everyone else was destroyed," Bill Daugherty, iWon's founder and then co-chief executive time told The New York Times. "Suddenly you walk outside and because of the storm you have beachfront property. That's what Excite is to us. "

On December 16, 2001, iWon launched the new Excite portal and transferred millions of Excite users to its new home. Events 755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Infospace, for its part, owned and operated the web search function on Excite. This proved to be a short-sighted arrangement as searching became big business on the Internet in the ensuing years.

iWon changed its corporate name to Excite Network, and continued to operate Excite, iWon, and a third portal, MyWay. Outside of the United States, Excite Italia took control of portals in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Austria. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich

Freelane by Excite

Historical logo of the no-cost Excite FreeLane Internet service.

In a bid to compete against Internet Service Providers like NetZero and Juno Online, which offered free or low-cost dial-up access in the United States, Excite started offering its own "no-pay" service for private customers by partnering with 1stUp. NetZero is an Internet service provider based in Woodland Hills California. Juno client software icon Juno Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via Telephone lines The user's computer or Router uses an attached Modem connected to a The United States of America —commonly referred to as the com to create FreeLane by Excite: 1stUp would allow Excite customers to download software in order for them to able to log-on to the Internet. To download is to receive data from a remote or central system such as a Webserver, FTP server, mail server or other similar systems The software would then rotate a series of sponsored banner advertisements on the user's computer while they surfed the Internet. 1stUp. com soon went out of business, and Excite switched to another partner named WorldShare, rebranding Freelane as FreeLane version 2. 0. As of March 1, 2001 Freelane was discontinued. Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant ^[1]

The simple Navigation bar of the free Excite FreeLane Internet service.

Acquisition by Ask Jeeves

Excite continued to operate until the Excite Network was acquired by Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) in March 2004. Askcom is a Search engine. It is a business division of IAC Search & Media, and was founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Ask Jeeves promised to rejuvenate iWon and Excite, but did not. Ask Jeeves management became distracted, according to the East Bay Business Times, first by a search feature arms race with Google and Yahoo!, and then by its $1. Google Inc is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online 85 billion merger with Barry Diller's InterActive Corporation, announced in March of 2005. Barry Diller (born 2 February 1942 is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp and the media executive responsible for the creation of IAC, sometimes known as IAC/InterActiveCorp or simply InterActiveCorp, is an American media conglomerate which operates diversified businesses in sectors being

"Hopefully, as we start to invest more and get the staff in place and some of the changes to the portal properties that we want, we hope to see (revenue) grow back in the latter half of the year," said Ask Jeeves CEO Steve Berkowitz during a conference call with analysts on April 27, 2005. Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

On May 20, 2005, Ask Jeeves made two announcements regarding the rejuvenation of the Excite brand: it had acquired Excite Italia B. Events 325 - The First Council of Nicaea &ndash the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church is held Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. V. (the operator of Excite Europe), from Tiscali, S. p. A. , and had reached a comprehensive settlement with InfoSpace involving Excite in the United States whereby Ask Jeeves and InfoSpace would share marketing costs and revenue from the Excite web search function. "We look forward to working with InfoSpace to enhance the search experience on Excite, now that our interests are aligned," said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Ask Jeeves.

Ownership

Excite was owned by IAC Search & Media, which is also the parent of Ask. com and Evite, and was part of Barry Diller's InterActiveCorporation. Evite is a social-planning Website for creating sending and managing Online invitations Barry Diller (born 2 February 1942 is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp and the media executive responsible for the creation of IAC, sometimes known as IAC/InterActiveCorp or simply InterActiveCorp, is an American media conglomerate which operates diversified businesses in sectors being On October 17, 2007 GOADV (www. Events 539 BC - King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost goadv. com), a media company specialised in generating traffic on the Internet, announced the completion of its acquisition of the European Excite group of companies.

References

1. ^ CNN - Excite offers free Net access - January 10, 2000

• Business 2. 0, August 28, 2001
• USA Today, October 1, 2001
• Various company press releases

See also

• Pogo.com
• @Home Network

External links

• Excite
• Excite UK
• CNET Special Report on Excite@Home Bankruptcy
• Background on iWon's acquisition of Excite (New York Times)
• Stanford Magazine:The Millionaires Next Door by Tia O'Brien
• GoAdv

See also

• List of search engines