Greeting card deal boosts AOL
AOL and American Greetings reach an agreement to provide online greeting cards through AOL, propelling the online service's stock to another 52-week high.
Meanwhile, stock in Excite (XCIT) rose 5-5/8 to close at 34-3/8 today after the search engine firm announced new marketing deals that it said would "positively impact" its third-quarter earnings.
Many of Excite's deals already were announced, but it also included some new marketing pacts with CDnow, Consumers Car Club, First Auction, GolfWeb, and Greet Street.
Following the other search engines into the land of electronic commerce, AltaVista named online bookseller Amazon.com the exclusive bookseller on the search service. Under the terms of the deal, Amazon.com will have direct links from search results pages to related book titles.
In addition, American Greetings will be an anchor tenant in AOL's new shopping channel.
AOL stock closed at 83-3/4 today, up 3/4.
Internet news editor Jeff Pelline and reporter Stephanie Miles contributed to this report.