WSM
I think what is happening in the market right now, and what is happening with TimeWarner/AOL and HLTH/MMGR, and what is happening between the Yahoo! HLTH message board and the Yahoo! MMGR message board are all perfect proxies for the real issue: How is the old economy going to get along with the new economy?
Compare the two Yahoo! message boards. It is clear to those of us on the MMGR board that some discipline would help the HLTH board (and I am not even speaking about the bashers and foul mouths). But will the HLTH board accept discipline? And if it did, would it survive? Is there a figure on these boards that can unify the both of them? Can that figure, really, be the figurehead of the opposing view? Or is a synthesis needed to produce a working model? Someone who speaks both languages? Or is this a case where the parties should simply agree to go their own ways and get along where and when they find it mutually advantageous, and only then.
My best guess would be that if unification is the goal, the most success would come from finding someone on the HLTH board that understood the value of discipline and reformed the HLTH board from within, able to do so because he was already respected by the group. Such an individual, if successful, would immediately win the respect of the MMGR board.
But that is the situation between the two Companies (oops, message boards): What is the nature of the CUSTOMER here? My impression is that the customer, the one who is going to use the system from the inside, falls into the Old Economy mind set.
For a long while before the proposed merger I had my doubts about MMGR's ability to emerge as the dominant player. When the merger came to pass, I thought it would surely be a fantastic success with the potential to completely focus the entire medical community and it's customers the patients (something MMGR seemed determined to ignore). On the other side, I absolutely admire the partnerships HLTH has managed to put together and I think the attitude toward publicity is entirely appropriate in an economy where Share Price is one's currency for doing deals, and where one's customer is the ordinary man as patient and one makes one's buck by attracting his attention.
I think the TimeWarner/AOL deal was massively significant. I think it's occurrence is the proximate cause of this latest market decline: it made everyone in the investment world aware that there really are two economies here. What has been happening to my portfolio and others is the battle that resulted. I really hope it doesn't bring us all down. I hope we can find a way to get along.
Forgive my probable over-simplification, the way I see it MMGR is best suited for the doctors and institutions and HLTH is better suited for the patient. MMGR, internal, behind the scenes, making everything work; HLTH the visible corporate charismatic persona drawing everyone into the system. Integration of the two cultures looks like mixing vinegar and milk. You want to see both sides make some real money? Sit them both down and divide up the business in ways that best match the corporate personality types. To make the two entities work you need to keep them separate, to unite them and at the same time keep them separate, you need an overlord who can think from both perspectives. This is not, in my admittedly limited view, the strength of Marty Wygod. |
