By Rachel Chalmers

Excite@Home Corp has reported revenues of $113m for the quarter ended September 30 1999, compared with pro forma revenues of $58m for the same quarter last year. The historical results of Excite Inc and @Home Corp are combined to come up with the pro forma figures. The merged company posted a net operating loss for the quarter of $4m, compared to $8m for the same period last year. These losses exclude non-operational expenses; add those in and Excite@Home lost $499m, compared with $23m this time last year. Analysts reported that the company met expectations. President George Bell promised that with MatchLogic targeting technology, an AOL switching campaign and new OEM and retail distribution agreements, subscriber levels will go up and the company’s narrowband media business will improve.

Cable modem subscriber numbers hit 840,000, up from 620,000 on June 30, 1999. The @Home service was launched in 11 new markets, bringing the total to 105 markets worldwide. A total of 23 cable companies offer or are preparing to offer the @Home service to 72 million homes around the world; that’s 15 million more than they reached in 1998. The addition of Telenet of Belgium and a planned venture with Tele-Columbus in Germany helped the company’s international high-speed access business. @Home’s first international service was launched in the Netherlands in the second quarter. Other regions are scheduled to follow in 2000. The AOL campaign offered rebates of AOL’s $9.95 bring-your-own- access monthly subscription fees to encourage users to connect through the @Home service. The company calls this is most successful customer acquisition program ever, but doesn’t divulge exactly how many new customers it won. Retail merchandising programs expanded to include Circuit City, The Good Guys and Office Depot.

As for the Excite portal, traffic reached 89 million daily page views in September 1999. Registered users reached 44 million by September 30. Local versions of the portal are now available in 10 countries outside the United States, including Japan, Spain, Sweden, Australia and the UK. The applications offered through Excite – Planner, Assistant, Voicemail and Voicechat – are credited with driving some of this growth. The company announced a $55m investment in Tickets.com and a content deal to integrate Tickets.com services throughout Excite and @Home. Another investment, in FairMarket Inc, could see the site team with traditional rivals to go head to head with auction giant eBay Inc. The quarter’s final highlight was a deal with IBM Corp to feature Excite.com as the start page for rapid internet access on Aptiva computers. The only fly in that ointment is that Big Blue has pulled the unprofitable Aptiva from retail shelves. á