[London, ENGLAND] European Internet giant Tiscali announced
Monday it has agreed to acquire 70 percent of Excite Italia,
leaving Excite@Home with just the remaining 30 percent.
The deal follows a capital injection of US $22 million by
Tiscali and the sale of 50 percent of Excite Italia by Seat
Pagine Gialle (Telecom Italia).
Renato Soru, executive chairman and chief executive officer
of Tiscali, said the deal was an important step toward becoming
“the Internet leader” both in Italy and in Europe. Excite@Home,
he said, would be a key partner in pursuing this strategy.
Tiscali explained the reasoning behind the acquisition by
saying “what might have been.” Had the deal occurred previously,
the combined operations in Italy would have generated pro forma
advertising revenues of around US $14 million in 2000, with
nearly 300 million monthly page views in January alone this year.
One of Italy’s most popular Internet portals, Excite Italia has
acquired over a million registered users since opening in 1999.
It has almost 1.5 million unique visitors monthly.
John O’Farrell, Excite@Home’s executive vice president,
international, said partnering with Tiscali, one of Europe’s
largest and fastest-growing ISPs, was great news for Excite@Home.
“Leveraging Tiscali’s obvious strengths in Italy provides us with
great opportunities to build on Excite’s leadership presence in Italy,”
said O’Farrell.
From Monday it will be “business as usual” at Excite Italia, where
the management team will remain in place and the company will
continue to operate independently. As before, it will still have
exclusive access to Excite@Home’s media-related know-how, technology,
and brand in the Italian market.
For Tiscali, one reason for not rocking the boat is Excite@Home’s
expertise in broadband portal technology, which may prove instrumental
in the future for gaining position in a fast-growing broadband
market.
Tiscali, which claims the largest geographical footprint of any
European Internet provider, agreed to buy France’s second-largest
ISP, Liberty Surf, in early January this year. That acquisition
was estimated to bring Tiscali’s total user-base to 4.9 million active
subscribers.
