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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (24996)	6/25/1999 9:53:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

I think MSFT is about to go on the offensive so that it can hurt AOL (legally of course). It could mean getting bigger in the ISP business, which should really be called "Microsoft Online". Do some heavy advertising with great deals for consumers. This will really hurt AOL. The second worry they have is AT&T and other cable companies. It seems they are almost as worried about cable than they are about AOL. They seem to go begging to get on the set top boxes that cable operators would be offering. I guess by investing in cable, they have a certain degree of influence. The drop in AOL due to the analyst comments on less upside earnings surprises and competition in ISP pricing could MSFT's best friend. Why not add some fuel to the fire by cutting ISP costs. MSFT is probably going to make some "competitive" moves to ensure AOL does not get too strong. I bet they want to get a settlement in the trial before taking aggressive steps. MSFT wants to ensure that AOL does not continue gaining strength. They probably prefer a very fragmented ISP business with no big dominant player. This way, it is able to excercise influence over small players rather than face a big player.