If Excite! becomes relevant and develops a compelling product then ATHM will keep them. The tracking stock ploy will have worked. Att put the screws to ATHM and so ATHM put the screws to Excite!?. It's either produce or we spin you off. I think the Jerm gets some applause for this move. He's kickin' his own butt for trying to keep up with Armstrong macho. Armstrong's butt is sore too.
What position has ATHM and MSO's wrt content providers? Don't use "content provider". It's a meaningless word like "space". When one doesn't know what one is talking about one uses these terms. Instead just say "site". That is more accurate and less misleading. Now ask the question. Voila. If Excite!? starts producing an attractive interface with powerful tools like you and I put together in our model, then other sites would want to get on board the @Home format. Certainly most sites are already available, but as you and I discussed, the idea is to pull them through the @Home high speed spaghetti machine. That way they're fit for public consumption. If you have @home, you figure out that the problem isn't with the 'bone or the last mile, rather the problem is with all these rickety sites, their hack code, their junk servers, and all the other useless bottlenecks between mechanical distribution and territoriality.
If Excite!? flounders, XYZ would buy them for 3 bills.
As for a 7B write-off I have no idea how it would be handled. If you buy an asset for 7 which has 4 in goodwill, and you sell it for 3, to what extent can you claim the 4? It's very complicated.
As for whether ATHM begins selling the "start page" to different sites, the issue reverts back to the old unsolved problem of corporate definition or mission. What is ATHM? They can create a definition if Excite!? will deliver with a high powered tool set and an interface which encourages sites to squeeze through the requirements of the spaghetti machine. It isn't important what face is showing. What is important is the functionality behind the face.
ATHM engages a company, XYZ, who wants to utilize the tools and high speed by stipulating the internal structure. XYZ designs its code around the ATHM IDE skeleton with XYZ providing the wrapper. Like you suggest here and as we have discussed privately, @Home becomes everyone's site, becomingly up to XYZ's ability to deliver added value beyond what the @Home skeleton enables. Thus ATHM leverages what creativity not bound to ATHM can provide. You don't have to be publicly branded to enjoy immense success. If companies come to you to get them up to steam, you are the brand. |
