I, too, doubt that AOL will be the ISP. I think we all gravitate to that assumption because, internally, we all understand that that would be a grandslam homerun, off the scoreboard and into the parking lot. It's fun to fantasize about news that will make a stock explode and, sure enough, an AOL tie-in with PINC fits that bill.
I will probably regret saying this, but AOL and PINC are both amoral enough to the same degree that they would probably enjoy doing business with each other.
Greg Kraft with his shameless quote from a PINC June 15 press release:
"There are about 250 million PCs worldwide, and 230 million are not compliant. If they can't become compliant, on Jan. 1, 2000, all their data will be destroyed." (Yeah, right--which is why when I talked with PINC tech support, not a word was said about lost data, only the system clock being inaccurate).
And AOL once called me to ask if I wanted to buy an Internet Yellow Pages. The cost was like $30 bucks or something. Geez, how about using a search engine? This would a.) be more up-to-date than a publication I receive in the mail and b.) be free!
Ugh.
Also, I agree with you that any ISP tie-in should help this company's profits. As you know, mention "Internet Commerce" and watch the stock price go up. |
