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Excite end could be near
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November 27, 2001: 6:06 p.m. ET
Troubled Internet service provider struggles to renew cable company deals.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - ExciteAtHome said Tuesday that it could stop providing service to its more than 4 million customers by Friday if it cannot renegotiate agreements with the cable companies that carry its service.
Some of ExciteAtHome's cable partners have informed their users that service could cease after Nov. 30, Excite spokeswoman Stephanie Xavier said. Excite, with 4.1 million U.S. customers, counts on some of the nation's biggest cable companies as distribution partners, Comcast Corp., Cox Communications and AT&T among them.
Redwood City, Calif.-based Excite (ATHMQ: Research, Estimates), will appear before a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco Friday where a judge will decide whether to block the service if discussions fail, Xavier said.
Excite, the nation's No. 5 ISP, has also been delisted from the Nasdaq.
In August, Excite announced that it would not repay a $50 million loan to Promethean Investment Group LLC. The cash crunch caused Excite in September to cut 500 jobs and pared down operations. The troubled ISP then filed later that month for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
New York-based AT&T Corp., which holds a 23 percent stake in Excite and has a 74 percent voting stake, agreed to buy Excite's broadband assets for $370 million.
Excite motion for AT&T (T: down $0.28 to $16.83, Research, Estimates) to buy its broadband assets will be heard in court on Dec. 5, Xavier added.
In November, ExciteAtHome agreed to sell certain assets related to its portal Excite.com to Internet and wireless services provider InfoSpace Inc. for $10 million. 
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