Excite@Home and Dow Jones to form small business portal
Excite@Home and Dow Jones are teaming up to create a portal site aimed at the small business market. Work.com will initially be jointly owned by both firms. A public offering of a minority interest is planned for later this year.
Excite's @Work division launched its Work.com site last September, aiming it at the small- and medium-sized business markets. Dow Jones launched its own business-focused portal site in June. The new site, which will feature content from Dow Jones, will launch later this year.
"This is an excellent example of how we can come together with an established media company to create new value," Excite@Home chief executive George Bell said in a press release. "The increased depth of content from Dow Jones will be a strong addition to Excite.com's Business Channel."
In addition to business news from Dow Jones, the Work.com site will include headlines and selected stories from The Wall Street Journal, as well as content from Barron's. The site will also feature email, market research, file and document sharing, plus collaboration tools, including the Excite Planner. Customers will be given access to applications such as Web site hosting, customer relationship management, payroll and accounting services.
Neither company has yet named a chief executive. Ezra Palmer, editorial director of dowjones.com, will be editor in chief.
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