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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger who wrote (26870)	7/26/1999 1:13:00 PM
From: HECTOR RUBERT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

Roger.........Ditto!!!! Hector

To: Roger who wrote (26870)	7/26/1999 4:19:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 41369

>>I hope the voters in SF listen to this - VOTE FOR OPEN ACCESS. If these guys in SF have any sense of capitalism and free competition, they will vote for open access. Dow Jones Newswires -- July 26, 1999 DJ America Online Down 5% On Instant Messaging Dispute By Peter Loftus ....Investors may be concerned that AOL will lose some of its appeal if it loses its lock on instant messaging, analysts said. "It's one of those things that helps AOL be what AOL is," said Sanford Bernstein analyst Tom Wolzien. Ladenburg Thalman & Co. analyst Youssef Squali agreed, saying AOL's instant messaging has been "one of the few real proprietary applications that no other ISP had." The rising popularity of instant messaging was borne out in AOL's results for its second quarter ended June 30, which were released last week. AOL said it had 38 million registered users of its ICQ instant messaging service and 25 million users of AOL Instant Messenger. But if AOL continues to block access to competing instant messaging services, it may alienate its own customers, said Paul Hagen, industry analyst with Forrester Research. Hagen predicts AOL will eventually agree to some sort of industry standard for instant messaging, and that the latest blocking efforts are a "staling tactic." "I think either there is enough pressure on them from third parties" or the U.S. Justice Department scrutinizes AOL's instant messaging efforts on antitrust grounds, Hegen said. Prodigy is one of the third parties trying to force AOL to open up its instant message functions. Chief Technology Officer Bill Kirkner said the Internet has a history of companies' creating open platforms and sharing various software applications, so AOL should open up instant messaging. He said that if AOL continues to close its instant message system, it will lose control of that area, and competitors will work together to develop a standard leaving AOL on the outside. Prodigy began offering instant messaging to its users in early May. Its users had access to AOL Instant Messenger users until mid-June, when AOL blocked access. The companies then held discussions to try to reach an agreement that would allow Prodigy-AOL instant message connections, but AOL said late last week it wouldn't allow such access. AOL had demanded that Prodigy pay a fee, Kirkner said, which Prodigy refused to do. An AOL spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment. Prodigy is now trying to attract members to a consortium of companies that would develop a standard for instant messaging designed to allow usage across all systems, Kirkner said. AOL shares recently traded down 5 13/16, at 102 1/8, on volume of 17 million, compared to the daily average of 22.7 million. Yahoo! shares were off 7 5/8, at 138 1/8. Prodigy shares were off 11/16, at 23 9/16. In addition to Microsoft and Yahoo!, AT&T Corp. (T) has contacted Prodigy about joining the consortium to develop an instant message standard designed to connect users across all systems, Prodigy's Kirkner said. AOL's actions to block access to its instant messaging software are "contrary to the very ethos of the Internet," said an AT&T spokesman. AOL has been at loggerheads with AT&T and the cable industry over the terms under which AOL can offer its services over their cable networks. "On the one hand, AOL talks about open access (over cable)...on the other, they are sabotaging a means of communicating through instant messaging between their members and the broader Internet community," the AT&T spokesman said.... interactive.wsj.com