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

To: Pruguy who wrote (29644)	8/20/1999 8:26:00 AM
From: Roy F	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

INTERVIEW-AOL service to beat Freeserve in ad revs August 20, 1999 04:45 AM By Neal Boudette, European Telecommunications Correspondent HAMBURG, Germany, Aug 20 (Reuters) - AOL Europe said on Friday its free Internet service in Britain is in position to surge past rival Freeserve Plc in advertising and electronic commerce revenue as soon as it launches next week. "We already have more revenue lined up than Freeserve generated in its first year," AOL Europe Chief Executive Andreas Schmidt told Reuters in an interview. The new service, called Netscape Online, will start operations on Tuesday and like Freeserve will charge no monthly fee, leaving users to pay only for the local phone calls for the time they are logged on. From its start last september to May 1, Freeserve generated 2.73 million pounds ($4.4 million) in advertising and e-commerce revenue. Netscape Online already has contracts with advertising and electronic commerce partners that are "more than that, by a wide margin," Schmidt said. Freeserve shook the UK market when it introduced the "free" access concept and shot ahead of AOL in registered users, becoming Britain's largest Internet service provider in only a matter of months. Netscape Online will lure some of the free Internet users -- mostly young, single men -- who prefer low-priced access over subscription-based services like AOL, Schmidt said. "This is another brand that we have to go after this particular market," he said. The company's flagship AOL service is aimed a novices and familes while its Compuserve unit targets business and professional users. Once Netscape Online up and running the the UK, AOL could easily start new versions for other countries. "The cost would be pretty low. We'd just have to put out Netscape Online CDs and get the local content," Schmidt said. "We could do it almost instantly." Schmidt would not say where and when Netscape Online would appear next. AOL Europe is a joint venture of America Online Inc AOL and German media group Bertelsmann AG . ((Frankfurt Newsroom, +49 69 756525, frankfurt.newsroom@reuters.com)) ($1=.6167 Pound) REUTERS

To: Pruguy who wrote (29644)	8/20/1999 8:27:00 AM
From: Roy F	Respond to of 41369

AOL to announce flat-rate prices in Germany August 20, 1999 04:39 AM HAMBURG, Germany, Aug 20 (Reuters) - AOL Europe said on Friday that it would announce a flat-rate pricing scheme for German online users at next week's IFA media and telecommunications show in Berlin. Chief Executive Andreas Schmidt declined to release the price until the August 26 announcement, but said the company was ready to move aggressively to take market share from T-Online, the Internet service of Deutsche Telekom AG . "It is going to be a market-shaking price," Schmidt told Reuters in an interview. German media have reported AOL will give users unlimited online time for less than 20 marks per month. Users would still pay the local phone charges for the time they are dialled in. AOL Europe said it aims to bring a truly flat rate -- a single price for online time and phone charges -- but has to work with a phone company that offers local phone service, not just long-distance. Telekom has said it is not interested in developing flat rates for Internet access, but Mannesmann AG and Mobilcom AG plan to break into the local segment in Germany's major cities this year. Asked if AOL Europe has talked to Mannesmann and other companies about bundling AOL with local phone service, Schmidt said: "I cannot say anything about this. But, it would make sense." T-Online has 3.3 million subscribers. AOL Europe is second in Germany with more than one million. ((Neal Boudette, Frankfurt Newsroom, +49 69 756525, frankfurt.newsroom@reuters.com)) REUTERS

To: Pruguy who wrote (29644)	8/20/1999 8:45:00 AM
From: Tecinvestor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

Pruguy, there have been some rumors that SOFN (high speed internet access via satellite) is an acquisition target. Might not be a bad company for AOL to look at. But then, again, I'm prejudiced since I have a position in SOFN. <g>

To: Pruguy who wrote (29644)	8/20/1999 1:21:00 PM
From: Time Traveler	Respond to of 41369

Notice T just fell below yearly low. They need to do something. I don't know why that management team is so stone headed. Striking a partnership with AOL would benefit both companies tremendously. No wonder the baby Bells are eating T's lunch nowadays.

To: Pruguy who wrote (29644)	8/20/1999 6:41:00 PM
From: mact	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

not to rehash old tunes from the past...but the threats i have mentioned in the past are still quite real and pertinent. 11:23 ET ****** America Online (AOL) 95 7/16 -9/16: When you're a top tech firm, the threats never stop coming. That's been the case for Microsoft (MSFT) for years, and in the past few years it has become true of America Online (AOL) as well. The latest threat to AOL is detailed in a Merrill Lynch research note about Best Buy. Merrill notes that the new subsidized PC program at Best Buy has attracted 100,000 takers in just four weeks. The program offers subsidies for PC buyers that increase as the buyer increases his commitment to a Prodigy contract (PRGY). The threat to AOL is that 60% of those surveyed after buying a subsidized PC had cancelled an existing ISP service within a week of signing their Prodigy agreements. Since AOL is the largest ISP, it has the most to lose if cancellations of existing services pick up. Readers may think that 100,000 is a pretty small number, and they would be right in the sense that 60% of 100,000 is 60,000 and only some fraction of that 60,000 were actually signed up for AOL -- the ultimate number of AOL cancellations is probably very small relative to its base. But Merrill claims that seasonally adjusted and annualized, that 100,000 could be 3 mln, a much more threatening number. The annualizing part of this calculation is easy -- it's just 12 times the monthly number, or 1.2 mln. Seasonal adjustment is a trickier issue -- there's not much history on ISP seasonal patterns, and there's even less history on how seasonal patterns of a retail offering of low-priced PCs with ISP contracts. Merrill's assumption is that summer is slow for ISPs and that the pace will pick up, but it may be that an initial rush to buy led to a surge in sales and that the monthly pace will not hit 100,000 again in the next 12 months. But perhaps an even more important point, and one that Merrill aludes to, is that AOL has proven to be very nimble when responding to past challenges (that is why AOL, like MSFT, is a tech leader). Merrill suggests that AOL will do a deal with BBY. Whether or not there's an AOL/BBY deal in the future, it is a good bet that AOL is busy with some sort of response to this threat. They have responded to every threat in the past. - GJ