A brief, but significant announcement from Excite Inc late yesterday brought industry rumors surrounding the company and Walt Disney Co to an end for now. The rumors, at various points, had Disney either taking a stake in Excite or buying the company outright. Neither of those is going to happen – at least not at the moment – but Disney’s Buena Vista Internet Group and Excite have signed an agreement whereby some content from Disney’s Disney.com, ESPN, ABC.com and ABCNews.com sites will be included on Excite’s portal from the end of this month. The content will appear on co-branded pages within Excite’s entertainment, news and sports channels and elsewhere through the site. Excite was tight-lipped on the terms of the deal and nobody at Disney was available for comment, but Excite says the deal is not exclusive on both sides. Excite’s shares rose in after-hours trading. Having closed at $55.96875 it was rising through $57 as we went to press.
