Word: aol
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...been worth a few billion in its own right. The Netcenter site is a leading contender in the race to become one of a handful of powerhouse "portals": full-service websites that are online launching pads, entertainment networks and shopping malls rolled into one. Between netscape.com aol.com and the AOL service itself, Case's audience now numbers in the tens of millions. His acquisition also makes a good daytime-nighttime fit. AOL's usage is heavily weighted toward the evening and weekend hours, when teenagers and home users do most of their surfing, while Netcenter is most heavily trafficked from...
...deal is relatively straightforward: in exchange for $4.2 billion (roughly 10%) worth of its high-flying (if arguably inflated) stock, AOL gets all of Netscape, right down to the last cappuccino machine. These are indeed dark days for the Mountain View, Calif., start-up. The company whose trailblazing browser jump-started the World Wide Web back in 1994 was supposed to become the fastest hot rod on the Infobahn. Instead, Bill Gates sideswiped it into a ditch and left AOL to strip the wreck for parts: a browser, a website and a treasure chest of software. How well AOL exploits...
...high-water mark for Navigator, the software jewel in Netscape's crown. Then Microsoft stuck its competing Web browser, Explorer, on millions of Windows desktops and grabbed roughly half the market with uncanny speed (the Justice Department is still trying to figure out exactly how that happened). Under AOL's wing, Navigator could once again take the lead--if Case decides to switch AOL's built-in browser from Explorer to Navigator. The problem is that if Case drops Explorer, AOL could lose its happy perch on those same millions of Windows desktops. What's it going to be, Steve...
...SOFTWARE. Monday-morning quarterbacks wonder just what precisely AOL is now. Since its humble birth in Vienna, Va., as Quantum Computer Services in 1985, the company has focused on one thing: creating an attractive online experience for the average schmo who can barely plug in his PC. It was a smart plan whose execution has been more or less perfect. The catchy populist name. That effortless user interface. Those millions of free starter discs. Those infamous chat rooms. And, of course, that cheerful robot chirping, "You've got mail" (now the title of a romantic comedy coming soon...
...worked. AOL went public in 1995 with fewer than 200,000 subscribers. Today that number is 14 million and climbing, courtesy of a laser-beam consumer focus that may be precisely what the new company lacks. AOL has long since won the Net's largest mass audience, and through hundreds of sales alliances with companies, from Barnes & Noble to 1-800-FLOWERS, that audience is getting accustomed to the idea of the Net as one vast cash register. Now Case is gambling that as e-commerce grows from a novelty to the bedrock of 21st century capitalism, AOL can--perhaps...