Solid:
<The market and many ignorant analysts assume ATHM competes with AOL. They DO NOT. ATHM is not just an ISP. They are a network backbone with an ISP portal called Excite. By nature, for cable BB you don't just get a computer, plug in a phone line and advertise as an ISP. You build a new network with new technology and that takes time and money and has inherent risk and challenges. I could go on and on about this aspect to differentiate it for you, but that would be disrespectful of the years of effort stored within this threads history. Get a BB connection and read some of it. >
I didn't say that ATHM only competes with AOL. It also competes with Doubleclick (via MathLogic) and competes with (or should compete with--that's a whole other discussion) fiber companies that provide capacity. But with respect to AOL, they compete. ATHM has to convince an AOL user to abandom AOL (or at least pay for AOL on top of ATHM), buy new equipment, arrange an installation, etc. That's competing. Or isn't ATHM going after AOL's 25 million users?
Analysts won't "get" ATHM until ATHM has the ability to shove the numbers (e.g., revs, subs, earnings, e-commerce, etc.) in front of an analyst. |
