Excite faces oblivion

NEWS Excite@home in the US is on the brink of dumping its ISP customers if a court judge decides on Friday that the company's cable carriers are not liable to continue delivery of the service. Carrier companies have already warned Excite's 4.1 million users that the service may end this week. A judge will decide to block the ISP's service if its peace-making talks with the cable carriers are unsuccessful. At the beginning of November, the company entered an agreement with Infospace for a $10m sale of certain domain names, trademarks and user traffic. The deal is subject to bankruptcy court approval and the overbidding process where a better deal can still be accepted. The only part of Excite's US operations not being sniffed for a sale is its portal.