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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (79709)	10/5/1999 9:19:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Wierd divergence there. It is meaningless on its own. The question will be is this going to be a trend? Glenn

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (79709)	10/5/1999 9:22:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

AOL set to upgrade software for Internet service By Nicole Volpe NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Reuters) - America Online Inc. <AOL.N> is set to unveil on Tuesday the latest software upgrade for the more than 18 million members of its flagship Internet service, with new features for Web searching, posting photos online, home-page personalization and online events calendars. The upgrade to AOL 5.0, as the new version of the software is known, has already been installed by 750,000 members on their personal computers in a preview release. The general release is set for Tuesday at a press conference here. In what is becoming a fall ritual meant to capitalize on the seasonal upswing that occurs in home Internet use following the warm summer months, AOL is distributing millions of copies of AOL 5.0 through mass mailings and as print media inserts. "You'll be able to cover the walls in one of your rooms" with the software mailings, Jonathan Sacks, vice president and general manager of the AOL service, said of the carpet-bombing that will ensue. "Lots of people are going to want to upgrade. We've been adding one million members every quarter, and we expect that to continue," he said. Goldman Sachs analyst Vik Mehta estimated AOL's investment in such marketing at around $175 million during the last three months of 1999. The new version allows for 16-character screen names, or e-mail addresses, helping to alleviate the common problem of having to include numbers alongside names in the 10-character addresses now used by AOL members, resulting in unwieldy addresses like jsmith8976@aol.com, an imaginary example. The service also allows a member to delete an e-mail already sent to another member. The momentum of the 5.0 upgrade, the expected seasonal upswing in new members this fall and recent international expansion moves, not to mention the pending online holiday shopping boom, have lifted AOL shares out of a summer trough. AOL stock, which traded as low as the 77 in early August, closed up 3/4 to 108-3/4 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. AOL shares have also benefited from signs of an opening in its so-far frustrated effort to strike high-speed Internet access deals with major U.S. cable operators, the factor analysts cite most often for having put a cloud over the stock. Last week, AT&T Corp. <T.N>, the nation's largest telephone and cable television operator, which has been engaged in a war of words with AOL over access to its cable lines, acknowledged it was exploring possible deals tied to its holdings in ExciteAtHome Corp. <ATHM.O>, a high-speed Internet rival of AOL. While AT&T and ExciteAtHome were mum on any specific deal with AOL, more and more Wall Street analysts see such talks as inevitable. "AOL spends a lot of time finding out what users do within the service," said Mehta. "The usage keeps rising, it has gone from 10 hours to 30 hours per month," he said, of the progress AOL has made in keeping members, which helps it boost advertising rates and shopping deals with corporate marketers. Online scheduling, which members can use to track events and post reminders, and the photo feature, which allows photos to be posted via the Internet through a partnership with Eastman Kodak Co. <EK.N>, are aspects that will keep members online still longer, he said. 859-1700)) REUTERS Rtr 19:33 10-04-99