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AT&T Ends Bid To Buy @Home Assets

Posted by Hemos on from the ending-it-all dept.

thumbtack writes: "In the neverending story of the @home saga it's being reported (on the Excite Portal which is not going under) that AT&T has broken off their bid to purchase Excite@home assets. They cite a number of significant contractual breaches and other violations by the bankrupt broadband Internet access company. In another related story Comcast and Cox say they have inked separate $160 million dollar deals to continued service while they develop their own networks. AT&T say that as of Tuesday morning they have moved 500,000 of their subscribers over to their network."

4 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Was it worth it ? by DennisZeMenace · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One wonders how valuable those assets really were considering it took AT&T about 5 days to switch most of their @Home customers to their own network...

    DMZ

  2. Why not do some type of buyout? by PoiBoy · · Score: 3, Interesting
    AT&T had been offering something in the $300-$400 million range to buy all the assets of @Home, and now Comcast et al. are paying $320 million to keep the network running for 3 months?

    The numbers don't make sense. Either AT&T threw out an incredibly lowball bid, or the other cable companies are paying out the nose for continued service.

    For this type of money, I'm surprised they don't buy the company outright either by themselves or perhaps by partnering with a private equity firm.

    --
    Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
  3. Re:Why none of this matters. by sien · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The deal for Excite was not that bad in some ways, when they bought Excite it had positive cash flow and was about number 3 or 4 in the portal game. The problem was that they synergy didn't happen.
    Cringely wrote a good column about it months before all this happened.
    His prognosis was also remarkably sharp, about how AT and T would come back and get the network, although it seems people are justifiably annoyed at their tactics.

  4. Re:You can't cancel! by pongo000 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    OTOH, nothing in the AUP specifically prohibits servers in connection with the service. In fact, this paragraph seems to contradict the whole idea of one computer/one account (bold mine):

    (i.) FTP/HTTP Service Setup. Customer acknowledges that when using the Service there are certain applications such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server or HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) server which may be used by other persons or
    entities to allow such other persons or entities to gain access to Customer?s Equipment. Customer is solely responsible for the
    security of the Customer Equipment or any other equipment Customer chooses to use in connection with the Service,     including
    without limitation any data stored on such equipment. Neither AT&T Broadband nor its affiliates shall have any liability
    whatsoever for any claims, losses, actions, damages, suits or proceedings resulting from, arising out of or otherwise relating to
    the use of such applications by Customer, or the access by others to the Customer Equipment or other equipment of Customer.

    I'll take my chances on the conflict between these two AUP provisions.