Further, I wouldn't doubt that BBN's lease deal with AOL has BBN fully covered, just like the trems for leasing a car cover the dealer against the loss of book value over the life of the lease.
So, the risk is all AOL's.
Unless AOL becomes unable to pay.
With AOL's negative working capital at ($193 Million), and Total Stockholder Equity at $38 million, this isn't a big stretch.
On the 15th over in Japan, Steve happened to mention that AOL currently has 5 million subscribers in the United States. As of Dec 31st, 1996, AOL stated they had 7,400,000 subscribers in North America, with 100,000 of those from Canada.
AOL reported about a month ago that they had broken the 600,000 number for total International members (which includes Canada).
Sounds to me like AOL has now only something between 5.6 and 6.0 million members worldwide. AOL continues to say they have "approximately 8 million members". Is 6.0 approximately 8.0 in AOLMath(tm), I wonder? |
