I think we are actually in agreement....sort of. If we were running a company we would not want to find the most critical aspects of our business being sole-sourced. It leaves us open for blackmail, etc.
Now if you really belive this you also agree to not make yourself the sole source. Why? Because someday maybe the union will shut you down or you will get bad management that will totally screw up the system and you will have no other source to go to.
So what you will do is find other suppliers, get competitive pricing, and distribute the load among them all. Hopefully, this is what the MSOs will do.
Now let's ask the question: Who will the MSOs will hire? AOL? AOL charges much more than ATHM to carry traffic. They have contracts asking for a % of all ad revenue going over their pipe, etc. When AOL first announced their agreement with Mindspring ATT said they liked the idea and thought they would have ATHM follow suit. C&C did not agree. Now we see the idea. They want a utility that will carry all their traffic at cost.
How about WCOM? Maybe - but they have never done cable internet and if I was WCOM I would ask for something close to AOL.
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At some point the MSOs have to ask themselves (even if they do the work themselves): what is fair payment for the job that ATHM does.
ATHM, from day one, has been viewed by the MSOs as a utility. A company which, on a good day, doesn't lose too much money. They, the MSOs, make all the money.
Now, to add insult to injury, the MSOs are trying to bankrupt all the debt accumulated by ATHM when the MSOs made the stupid mistake of letting some kids run the company and rack up a billion dollars of debt. This has created the wierd situation where ATHM is no longer controlled by the MSOs (BK judge controlls ATHM) and ATHM shareholders/debtors have decided to revolt and ask for fair compensation. |
