Down the road that is certainly a possibility. But over the next few days, AOL and TWX will have all the spotlight. . . as weeks pass we will hear how the deal affects all the little affiliates. . .unsure how any of this would affect associations . .
This deal has to make you wonder what the next deal will be. I could see Liberty Media, Newscorp and Fox pulling together. Sony is now a big media company. . as well as electronics maker. Disney owns ABC/ESPN and much of Infoseek/GoTo. Could Seagrams sell MCA/Universal . . and if so to whom? Microsoft? Yahoo? Disney? Could T now sell ATHM, so it can cut a deal with AOL/TWX?
The question I am asking is this. . . I believe there will be further mergers between the media and the internet, due to broadband being our future. Which companies will be the survivors? And how many will there be? AOL/TWX, MSFT/?, YHOO/?, DIS/?
Somehow, I think that MSFT will hook up with Liberty Media and A.T.&T. Especially after that half-billion greasing of T's palms on the set-top software deal. This would be a force strong enough to compete with AOL/TWX.
Then perhaps YHOO and DIS would merge. . . which would also make a major powerhouse.
The wild cards in the bunch are Seagrams and Sony. Either of which could buy their way into the internet by scarfing up or merging with Ziff-Davis, YHOO, LCOS, MSPG, etc. to make an attempt at competing.
As I said last week, January is merger month. . and there will be some serious choosing of partners. . .which should help drive the internets and high-techs this month.
Rande Is |
