He is in it for the buyout/consolidation play after ATHM is merged with RoadRunner.
Maybe, in the very long term, when a buyout would be much more expensive. But, for now, it looks like Paul Allen is doing everything possible to build a system that can stand alone. "Competition" isn't really the right word since few of these systems goes head-to-head against the others, but Allen seems to be combining enough small outfits that he'll have something that is too big for AT&T/@home to swallow.
To bring it all on-topic: Microsoft might stand to gain from all this. It's not clear to anyone -- even Microsoft itself -- where it will fit into all of this. T+ATHM is a danger to Microsoft because it seems poised to provide an end-to-end solution for TV, internet, and telephony. It's possible (but not assured) that their solution could leave Microsoft out of the picture. But if Microsoft can convince Allen's Charter/GNET group, or TWX and RoadRunner (in which MSFT has an investment) to use a Microsoft solution, or could convince Comcast (in which MSFT holds an 11% interest and which is a partner in ATHM) to use something other than the solution determined by AT&T, then Microsoft has a chance to be an important player.
And by the way, making $$ seems to be rather low on Paul Allen's list of priorities. He seems to enjoy spending it, and he does so lavishly, but his investment history and spending patterns suggest that he has some difficulty seeing money as an end in itself (which is probably why it's a good thing Allen ran the nerdy bit-shuffling end of things in the early days of Microsoft and Gates ran the business). |
