REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1998 JAN 15 (NB) -- By Bob Woods, Newsbytes. To take advantage of the direct marketing boom on the Internet, interactive media concern Excite Inc. [NASDAQ:XCIT] said it would acquire MatchLogic Inc. for 3.2 million share of Excite stock valued at around $89 million.
MatchLogic delivers products for the management, measurement and optimization of Internet advertising efforts, company officials said. MatchLogic does not buy or sell media, represent World Wide Web sites, sell software, or competes with ad agencies on any level.
MatchLogic billed in excess of $4 million in revenues in 1997. Excite's new acquisition is expected to add "significant new revenue" to the parent company in 1998.
Wall Street seems to like Excite's deal -- the company's stock is up 1.125 at 34.625, which is near its 52-week high.
No layoffs or facilities closings are expected with the buy. MatchLogic will stay in its Louisville, Colorado facility as an independent subsidiary of Excite. MatchLogic operates five data centers across the US and Europe which served ads on over 2500 sites and over 500 million advertising impressions in December on behalf of its customers, which include advertisers such as General Motors and AT&T, and ad agencies like Grey, DDB Needham and Thunderhouse.
Besides delivering new revenues to Excite, company officials said the MatchLogic buy gives Excite other capabilities it did not have before the acquisition. Through MatchLogic's targeting technology, Excite will be able to provide "one-to-one marketing" capabilities to advertisers. Excite officials quoted Direct magazine numbers that said more than two-thirds of all advertising dollars -- on and off the Web -- were spent on such direct marketing.
Excite's two Web sites -- Excite at http://www.excite.com , and WebCrawler at http://www.webcrawler.com -- will also be able to have access to measurement statistics and change and manage ad campaigns.
Because MatchLogic will be an independent subsidiary of Excite, the company will continue to provide campaign management services to top Internet agencies and their advertising clients, Excite officials said.
The transaction has already been approved by MatchLogic's shareholders and Board of Directors and by Excite's board. The buyout is subject to certain conditions, including gaining the blessings from accounting and regulatory authorities.
Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com .
(19980115/Press Contacts: Melissa Walia, Excite, 650-569-2213; Shari Pohlman, MatchLogic, 303-665-4007)
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