80% of the systems aren't upgraded yet. Underway? We all wish. If that was true ATHM's subscriber growth wouldn't have come out of the exponential category. It slowed to almost mere constant growth. Might have been due to weather, but progress is slow in scale.
Anyone can afford cable internet since it is the cheapest entertainment possible without the one way tv type constraint, non-interactive. In a recession Internet stocks should not be effected, that is, until after the cause of the recession, rising interest rates, is over.
AOL wouldn't buy Cox. You said so yourself. They are biding their time waiting for developments, maybe doing, as Jing suggested, a deal with ATHM since they see the handwriting on the wall. An RBOC or similar entity would attempt to buy Cox for the reason that T has forced their hand with the Comcast deal. It is surprising that all of this has taken as long as it has, or will. Such an attempt would be hostile, but Cox like Comcast though not all that happy with T, is on better terms. A hostile bid would not disrupt Cox's commitment to ATHM, but would definitely enhance ATHM shareholder value in contrast with the breakaway potential implied with Comcast. ATHM would get the subscriber potential brought by a foreign telephony co-carry. Maybe SBC is too wrapped up with Ameritech, so how about BEL? Got any names?
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