I would like to hear suggestions as to what I should cover next, as there are likely many aspects of history from this time I wouldn't think to include.
An Exciting Turn of Events
December 17, 1998
As he often did, Tom Jermoluk browsed tech news sections of many local newspapers and news websites. Today, however, he was in for a disappointment. The tech section of the San Francisco Chronicle had the following article in one of its sidebars:
George Bell, CEO of web portal company Excite, turned down offers from Netscape and has agreed to a merger with Yahoo!, according to sources familiar with the matter. This would be one of the biggest mergers in the dot-com industry, though given the intense speculation in the market a bigger one will likely come.
The new company will be under the Yahoo! banner, although WebCrawler and other Excite utilities will remain on Excite’s website for the time being. However, access to Excite’s data will be of great use to Yahoo's search function.
Neither Bell nor Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle have confirmed the matter, but employees from both companies have come to the Chronicle with news of the merger.
Jermoluk had hoped to purchase Excite, whose offices were just a few blocks away from his, so that his company @Home Network could expand its reach to Excite’s large user base, and perhaps even compete with AOL. However, Yahoo! had stolen his thunder by purchasing one of their biggest rivals. He had even scheduled a meeting with their CEO on the 19th. Dejected, he called in to Kleiner Perkins with the bad news.
Little did he know, one of the most disastrous mergers in tech history had been averted.
(In OTL, @Home purchased Excite)
An Exciting Turn of Events
December 17, 1998
As he often did, Tom Jermoluk browsed tech news sections of many local newspapers and news websites. Today, however, he was in for a disappointment. The tech section of the San Francisco Chronicle had the following article in one of its sidebars:
YAHOO! TO PURCHASE EXCITE FOR $5.2 BILLION.
George Bell, CEO of web portal company Excite, turned down offers from Netscape and has agreed to a merger with Yahoo!, according to sources familiar with the matter. This would be one of the biggest mergers in the dot-com industry, though given the intense speculation in the market a bigger one will likely come.
The new company will be under the Yahoo! banner, although WebCrawler and other Excite utilities will remain on Excite’s website for the time being. However, access to Excite’s data will be of great use to Yahoo's search function.
Neither Bell nor Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle have confirmed the matter, but employees from both companies have come to the Chronicle with news of the merger.
Jermoluk had hoped to purchase Excite, whose offices were just a few blocks away from his, so that his company @Home Network could expand its reach to Excite’s large user base, and perhaps even compete with AOL. However, Yahoo! had stolen his thunder by purchasing one of their biggest rivals. He had even scheduled a meeting with their CEO on the 19th. Dejected, he called in to Kleiner Perkins with the bad news.
Little did he know, one of the most disastrous mergers in tech history had been averted.
(In OTL, @Home purchased Excite)
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