Excite Signs $21 Million of New Ad Revenue for Netscape Partnership

Excite Inc. said it has signed agreements for $21 million in advertising revenues in connection with its two-year partnership with Netscape.

The new agreements show high advertiser demand for keyword, directory, channel and sponsorship opportunities, Excite said. Specifics were not disclosed.

The recently announced Netscape-Excite deal allows Excite to sell and program search, directory and a suite of channels for Netscape NetCenter.

Anticipating continued advertiser demand, and with no immediate constraints on search or channels ad inventory on Netscape, Excite said it has hired 12 new sales people since the announcement of its Netscape agreement three weeks ago.

“We are gratified to see the early reaction from the advertising community and anticipate continued ad revenue opportunities as our access to valued Netscape ad inventory increases over the course of the agreement”, said George Bell, president and CEO of Excite.

“On this the first day of our new search agreement, and with two years of selling still in front of us, we’ve signed agreements for 30% of the initial $70 million committed to secure our highly prized Netscape relationship. Prior to signing the agreement with Netscape, we perceived that its considerable inventory had been under-leveraged in the past, and our early sales numbers offer powerful validation of this fact and of the future opportunity.”