Excite@Home writes off $4.6bn

US internet access and content company Excite@Home has written off $ 4.6bn on assets, contributing to a $5.4bn loss for fourth quarter of 2000.

Much of the write-off is associated with the $8.26bn acquisition of web portal Excite earlier last year. The company has been accounting for the difference between the cost of the acquisition and value of Excite's assets as a loss. Excite@Home's operating losses were $36m, against a $0.5m profit for the same quarter last year, despite 31 per cent sales growth, and a 157 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of subscribers. The news completes a difficult couple of months for the California-based company. Earlier this week Excite@Home announced the lay-off of eight per cent of its staff, some 250 workers. In December, the company cancelled a merger with European broadband company Chello, citing a decline in the price of Chello's parent company, United Pan-Europe Communications.