Excite Inc. today
announced it acquired Classifieds2000, a Web
classified advertising company, in a stock swap transaction valued at $48 million.
The deal involves the exchange of 890,000 shares of Excite common stock for all outstanding shares of Classifieds2000.
Excite said the acquisition is further evidence of its expansion into the online classifieds and person-to-person Web-based commerce markets.
In a diversification play in January, Excite acquired online advertising firm Match Logic for $89 million (See InternetNews.com coverage).
Classifieds2000 will become a part of Excite’s flagship services, excite.com and webcrawler, in which consumers will be able to directly sell goods and services through a newly created database.
With a reported 1.5 million listings, Classifieds2000 will continue
to offer free, database-driven classified advertising in channels such as
employment, vehicles, real estate, personals, rentals and roommates, computers and software, opportunities and services, and general merchandise through its standalone Web site.
“Classifieds is a huge business on the Web and it is only going to get bigger as the use of the Web extends to mainstream consumers,” said George Bell, president and CEO, Excite. “By revenue and reach, Classifieds2000 is clearly the leader in this space and we are preparing for the future now. Building on our aggressive electronic commerce strategy, Excite will let individuals sell goods and service to the global Internet community the way that our Excite Shopping Search lets users find and buy exactly what they want on the Web.”
Excite said both Jupiter Communications and Forrester Research industry analysts expect the Web-based classifieds market to exceed one billion dollars by the year 2000.
