JHG, A few pointers on Msft/Aol battle.
- Offering free ISPs would be playing into the hands of DOJ, so this is still a few months away, precious time to appreciate what is going on with Aol these days.
- Even Msft cannot offer free service forever, so we need to know the full package to be able to appreciate potential damage to Aol, let alone the smaller ISP's who will cry foul to the DOJ, if they see themselves being run out of the party. Interesting to see how Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc would react since they have their own "nets", and happen to be big Msft customers.
- Aol has bought into every other alternative to broadband - satellite, DSL, so much so that buying into broadband will put it into a very strong position, but that would mean probably getting in bed with Msft, or ATT, which are not exactly its soul mates.
- Aol, with its fingers in so many pies is positioned to offer a sort of "web OS" somewhere down the road, and this potential is what is probably whining Bill up, as Aol tries to dare into his territory.
- There are still a few rounds to go before this is over. What is guaranteed though, is that Msft stands to lose nothing but to gain more, while Aol is at least guaranteed a bloodied nose, if it is to win the second tussle with this gorilla.
- I like these 2 stocks so I really am keen to figure out where this is headed. Any other opinions will be appreciated.
rgds,
Martin.
PS. More on this from the raging bull cyber report for this week. |
