How high will Microsoft fly? Message Board

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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?

MSFT 478.29

-1.8%

Nov 20 3:59 PM EST

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To: Teflon who wrote (18811)	3/25/1999 11:59:00 AM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) of 74651

I too admire Armstrong for what he's done with AT&T and for his vision of where the company needs to go. The only disagreement is that I don't see the "no-brainer" natural fit in broadband between T and MSFT that you posit. I think we'll continue to see the two develop alternate solutions for some time. Why? -- antitrust. Combining RoadRunner and @home would probably not make it past the FTC (which is charged with preventing the creation of monopolies through acquisition). If it did, then the current hands-off FCC approach to the market would probably shift to more active regulation -- something AT&T dearly wants to avoid. -- partnerships. Microsoft has been a partner in RoadRunner from the beginning. It may be a headless company, but it rests on some broad shoulders. I doubt that Microsoft would want to dilute its influence by becoming a smaller partner in a bigger organization. If Comcast opts for RoadRunner, then it will be on equal footing with @home. That's good enough for a nascent industry like this one. -- control. The two companies are in very different businesses, but a significant corner of their interests converge in broadband. The two seem to interpret that convergence differently. It looks to me like Microsoft's vision of how that convergence should play out gives Microsoft more power over the network than AT&T is willing to give up at this point. -- who needs whom? Always a significant question in such discussions. I don't see that either one needs the other one right now. Microsoft has important partnerships in broadband that will give it the ability to roll out Microsoft "solutions" to enough people that those software-centric solutions will have a chance of becoming standards. AT&T owns enough of the market and has partnerships that will let it focus on its network-centric solutions which will have a chance of becoming standards.

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