Andy Freeberg For TIME Digital
AP Photo/At Home Network
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BROADBAND BUDDIES
COMPANY Excite@Home Corp., Chairman and CEO; President
NET WORTH $100 million; $50 million
AGE both 42
E-MAIL tj@corp.home.net gbell@excitecorp.com
BIO Call them broadband's odd couple. One's an engineer at heart; the other's a
onetime journalist. When @Home merged with Excite in May, few expected their
brash, fiery chiefs to find an easy accommodation. But Jermoluk, former CEO of
cable-modem Internet-service provider @Home, and Bell, who ran Excite, seem to
have worked things out.
Years back, it's unlikely we would have seen these two working at the same
company, let alone side by side. Jermoluk got his start working at
Hewlett-Packard, then helped run Silicon Graphics as its president and chief
operating officer. (His sole new-media experience--which Jermoluk eagerly points
reporters to--was helping build the ill-fated Full Service Network, an
experimental broadband network that cost millions before Time Warner, the parent
company of Time Digital, pulled the plug on it.)
Bell, a former TV producer and reporter, leaped from Times Mirror's publishing
division--where he oversaw ad sales at magazines like Field & Stream and also
helped launch Times Mirror's first websites--to become CEO and employee No. 26 at
Excite.
Now Jermoluk deals with Excite@Home's convoluted management structure. Cable
giants like AT&T, Cox and Comcast control most of its shares, and clashes between
Jermoluk and AT&T cable executive Leo Hindery have made news. Bell, meanwhile, is
charged with running the business day to day.
FORWARD TILT Regulatory clashes over "open access" to cable-modem systems may
threaten Excite@Home's exclusive reign over consumers' high-speed connections. If
things sour with Excite@Home's cable partners, look for Jermoluk, not Bell, to
take the fall.
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