The future of UK portal Excite.co.uk is expected to be decided later today.

Last month BTopenworld and Excite@Home - the two companies behind Excite UK - announced that the portal would shut down at the end of the year unless a buyer could be found.

At the time Rebecca Miskin, MD of Excite UK, blamed the global downturn in media advertising which had "negatively affected Excite UK's financial performance".

She also acknowledged that Excite UK would face closure unless a buyer could be found.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment this morning on whether the company had succeeded in finding a buyer.

While the company's future remains uncertain, one thing has been confirmed. Excite's email service will not be available from December 31st 2001, according to an announcement on its Web site.

Users of the service are being advised to sign up instead for Lycos and told to save all their existing emails and addresses. ®

Related Story

Excite to exit UK unless buyer found