As part of a seven-year agreement between the two companies, Intuit will invest $40 million into the channel that will include financial news and information, stock quotes, service directories and tracking, decision and transaction tools.

The investment has already been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

Intuit will also pay $13.50 per share for 2.9 million shares of Excite common stock, representing about 19 percent of the search-engine company's outstanding common shares.

Scott Cook, chairman and co-founder of Intuit, said the alliance seeks to capitalize on the Web's ability to improve the way people manage their finances, make financial decisions and shop for financial services.

"This alliance with Excite will increase the speed with which we will be able to deliver these solutions and dramatically expand the number of people we can reach," he said.

Following the announcement, Cook and Excite President and Chief Executive George Bell discussed their deal on CNNfn's "The Media Show."

Bell said the partnership gives both companies a chance to bring together and personalize information consumers are seeking -- all in one convenient location. (269K WAV) or (269K AIFF)

The companies said most of the revenue will be generated from a combination of advertising fees and charges related to other products and services.

The channel will be distributed on the Excite, WebCrawler and Magellan search engines as well as the Quicken Financial Network. A promotional campaign aimed at the 10 million users of the Quicken personal finance software package is also scheduled.

Intuit will become the exclusive provider of financial content on all of Excite's services, and Excite will become the exclusive search and navigation service in Intuit's Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax software packages.

A growing number of companies, including CNNfn and Microsoft Corp., are providing financial information and resources on the Web. However, Cook believes the strength of the partnership will carry it past competitors. (189K WAV) or (189K AIFF)

The deal was announced after the close of trading Wednesday. Intuit shares ended off 1/2 at 24-1/2 while Excite shares climbed 2-1/4 to 15-3/8.
    --Cyrus Afzali