Portal strategies on speed

@Home's $6.7 billion bid to buy Excite is the latest in a string of pushes by high-speed access and content players to get into users' homes faster. It also coincides with a shift in the portal landscape toward consolidation and partnership with established offline brands.

@Home raises portal stakes news analysis The firm's acquisition of Excite comes amid heightened competition in the broadband market and increasing consolidation in the portal space. Deal shifts Excite's e-commerce strategy By hooking up with @Home, Excite will enjoy far greater control over users' shopping habits. The company will look more like America Online than Yahoo. Excite VP sees green in broadband deal Joe Kraus stands to reap a cool $45.4 million when @Home completes its purchase of the Internet directory he helped found as a Stanford University student in 1993. @Home buys Excite in $6.7 billion deal update @Home Network says it will acquire the No. 2 Web portal in a stock deal, in a move aimed at providing consumers with Excite's content over @Home's high-speed access systems. Snap makes high-speed play The portal is launching "Cyclone," a free service for users of high-speed cable modems. AOL's fast Net move circumvents cable news analysis America Online's plans for high-speed Net access are simple: be just as dominant in broadband as it is now in dial-up access. But that objective is easier said than done.