Word: aol
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...joined the World Trade Organization, this deal can be viewed as a WTO walk-up, a signal of what life might be like once China becomes a member. Upon entry, China has agreed to open its Internet market to foreign participation, making possible previously unthinkable arrangements like the AOL-Legend link. And for the communist officials who run China, you can't get much more foreign than AOL Time Warner, a $40 billion company with a broad array of interests in the Internet, movies, cable and publications?none of which hews to a government line. "This is a classic example...
...works, the venture could introduce a new Internet business model to China, one that combines content with services like chat and instant messaging, as well as online access. For AOL, which already has a presence in 17 countries, the venture is its most ambitious in Asia. China is potentially the world's largest Internet market, but so far Net companies aren't finding it profitable. The partners haven't ruled out buying a controlling stake in one of the country's troubled portals. But for now, the idea is that Legend's PCs will be sold Internet-ready...
...AOL could scarcely have found a more muscular partner in China than Legend. The computer maker dominates the country's home-PC market, with a 40% share. (Sales totaled $2.2 billion last year.) Legend's chief financial officer, Mary Ma, the company's main negotiator on the deal, says the Chinese firm initiated the courtship. Legend, she says, was convinced that, with the WTO's open market pending, it needed a sophisticated foreign partner to help differeniate itself in the market...
...underlying question for AOL is how an Internet company dedicated to the free flow of information can operate in a tightly controlled country. Beijing routinely blocks websites, including this magazine's, that report on what's happening in China, and it is intensifying a campaign against cybercafEs, closing down almost 2,000 in the past few weeks. AOL's CEO Gerald Levin, who flew to Beijing for the announcement, stressed in a press conference that the company's commitment to editorial independence applies "to the journalistic enterprises within our company from TIME magazine to CNN," while AOL's communications service...
...Despite the culture clash, the partners hammered out the basic framework for the venture at their first formal meeting, a whirlwind visit by Legend's top executives to AOL's Dulles, Virginia headquarters in June 2000. They decided almost immediately that it would be an equal partnership, according to Legend CEO Yang Yuanqing. (To comply with current China law, Legend will have a 51% stake.) The partners also quickly agreed on a business model that would combine Legend's hardware and AOL's Internet services. "There were problems throughout the negotiations," concedes Yang. "But from the beginning, both sides...