The six-year-old company, which has more than 3m subscribers, has debts of £706m and has been in rescue talks with the cable companies that supply its service. So far, the only offer that has been made for the service is a £215m bid by cable company AT&T. However, Excite@Home's creditors have demanded that the bid be raised to £706m or else the service will be shut down today.
Excite@Home, which has operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since September, recently axed 500 staff out of a 2,500 workforce in a cost-cutting exercise.
Following a high-profile launch, Excite@Home was badly hit by the downturn in advertising revenues this year, while subscriptions dropped from more than 4m to around 3m. AT&T's broadband unit is attempting to acquire Excite@Home's network assets in the hope of transferring 20% of users to its service if closure occurs.
Earlier this month, Excite@Home's UK portal Excite admitted that it also faced closure. Staff at Excite were warned that unless a buyer was found by December 15 the company would fold. Excite's announcement followed Excite@Home's announcement of £191.5m third-quarter losses and its decision to sell its 58% stake in the UK subsidiary. BT owns the remaining 42% of the company.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .