Word: aol
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Good luck. The smart guys in Silicon Valley, whose condescension toward AOL has risen in direct proportion to its embrace by the public, have never considered the company a serious technology player. "America Online has built an exceptional franchise on a technology base that could charitably be called dated," says Roger McNamee, founder of the high-tech investment firm Integral Partners. "It has been difficult for its partners to work with, and for AOL itself to maintain." How can the company possibly hope to compete in the corporate networking market if its own network is held together with Scotch tape...
...soul of AOL's newly empowered machine may turn out to be Scott McNealy, the brilliant, voluble CEO of Sun Microsystems. McNealy has been flacking his "the network is the computer" vision for years, pitching his Web-focused Java language as the platform on which to build a new generation of cheap, single-purpose network appliances, from TV set-top boxes to cell phones, that could finally break Microsoft's stranglehold on the digital universe. His deal with AOL--which also puts Sun's 7,000-strong sales force to work selling Netscape's e-commerce software--marks the official...
...Navigator with Explorer. In fact, McNealy's primary motive for supporting the Netscape buyout may be the prospect of saving the Netscape browser. One of Microsoft's big advantages is its ability to integrate its Windows and browser software, offering customers a soup-to-nuts package deal. With AOL on his side, McNealy can offer a similar deal--as long as Case decides that a healthy Navigator is more important to him than keeping AOL safely ensconced on Windows...
...that's an iffy proposition. Mark Mooradian, a senior analyst with Jupiter Communications, points out that Case may soon discover that Netscape is a double-edged sword. AOL's old mandate was simple: get as many people as possible onto its service. Now that it's a sprawling, vertically integrated e-commerce company, nasty intramural conflicts are inevitable. When Jeff Bezos upgrades Amazon.com's server software, for instance, will he buy it from AOL, which is the host for arch-competitor Barnes & Noble? Will the Internet service providers who compete with AOL choose Navigator as their browser, and thus enrich...
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson tried his best to make it a speedy trial--the antithesis of IBM's 13-year torture. Determining whether Microsoft has violated antitrust laws should take a month or two, maybe three. But as AOL has amply demonstrated, even six weeks can be an eternity in the warp speed of Internet time...