According to In The Plex, that deal was actually very close to going through up until that moment. Excite's VCs pushed to get the new CEO on board at some point

According to In The Plex, that deal was actually very close to going through up until that moment. Excite's VCs pushed to get the new CEO on board at some point during the negotiations with Google (and up until that point, Excite's engineer-led founding team had the most control). Strange to think how different things might be if that deal had gone through.