To all GNET "Longs," Don't Worry, Be Happy!!!
(Perhaps some "good news" for the YEAR 2000)
Patrick, I've been trying to get a little caught up with the GNET posts following a rather extended honeymoon (married in July).
I have found your recent posts to be excellent.
As a "bookend" to you Seattle P.I. post I will include the following link to an article from last night's Seattle Times:
seattletimes.com
I talked to the article's author a few minutes ago, complimenting her on her excellent coverage of GNET, and Paul Allen's "wired world" this past year. I have found that for many years the local the Seattle newspapers have had many articles on "local" companies, with excellent coverage coming out months (and sometime years) before the rest of the world had even heard of the companies (i.e.: MSFT, GNET, AMZN, RNWK, CHTR Ð just to name a few).
BTW. Why is "Horowitz" in the following article red-lined as misspelled in the S.I. spell-checker??? Russ, you'd better get that one corrected ASAP!!!
The following are some selected quotes from last night's article in the Seattle Times:
Allen has secured all the blocks needed to construct that vision - a highly connected world where people communicate, shop and enjoy entertainment via high-speed links hooked up to televisions.
The pieces are all there. Now let's see what they build.
Bill Savoy (president of Vulcan Ventures), "We think that all the elements necessary to create a compelling service exist in our portfolio."
Allen has spent billions investing in cable companies around the country, Web sites such as Seattle-based Go2Net. . .
Vulcan, perhaps because it is driven by a few key personalities rather than a layer of megacorporation managers, seems to project a more unified vision of what it will put on those pipes leading into the home.
Allen's joint venture expects to launch by the end of 2000 an interactive site designed for those accessing the Internet over their televisions.
Building the portal requires more than a few quick fixes to the existing Go2Net Internet site, said Russell Horowitz, Go2Net's chief executive officer.
"To create the definitive offering, you need to bring together the leading companies with particular expertise in a number of areas, and create a company that is a convergence of that expertise," Horowitz said.
"It's not like anyone's ever done this before," said David McCourt, RCN chief executive. "We cannot follow someone else's mold, because we're creating something from scratch."
The companies wouldn't divulge the specifics of the portal-in-progress. But, Here's one possible permutation, Horowitz said. Imagine viewing a movie trailer on television, clicking a button, finding out its next showing at the nearest theater and buying tickets over the television, all without getting off the couch. Then, "apply it 12 different ways," Horowitz said. "This really looks at the point where the wired world comes together."
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FULL ARTICLE FOLLOWS (Items in "bold" by me):
Posted at 06:58 a.m. PDT; Tuesday, October 5, 1999
Inside technology/Helen Jung
ALLEN BUSY SEWING UP HIS WIRED WORLD
For years, it seemed that Paul Allen, the other Microsoft co-founder, followed a buckshot approach to investing.
His company Vulcan Ventures would pour millions into everything, from movie-production company DreamWorks to online brokerage Datek.
Really, Allen and his supporters maintained, they had an overall vision - something they called "the wired world."
Now, with announcements yesterday of a $1.65 billion investment in telecommunications provider RCN and a joint-venture uniting several of his companies, Allen has secured all the blocks needed to construct that vision - a highly connected world where people communicate, shop and enjoy entertainment via high-speed links hooked up to televisions.
The pieces are all there. Now let's see what they build.
"We alone can determine our own success or failure," said Bill Savoy, president of Vulcan Ventures. "We think that all the elements necessary to create a compelling service exist in our portfolio."
We'd certainly think so, considering Allen's spending spree this year. Since January, Allen has spent billions investing in cable companies around the country, Web sites such as Seattle-based Go2Net and businesses including Oxygen Media, an Internet company also backed by Oprah Winfrey.
Allen's not the only one doing this. AT&T, for instance, snapped up cable company TCI and Excite@Home and is working toward delivering phone, TV and Internet service all as a single package.
But Vulcan, perhaps because it is driven by a few key personalities rather than a layer of megacorporation managers, seems to project a more unified vision of what it will put on those pipes leading into the home. AT&T hasn't given clear signals of how Excite's Internet site is included in its future.
Meanwhile, Allen's joint venture expects to launch by the end of 2000 an interactive site designed for those accessing the Internet over their televisions. The site, which in technospeak is called a "portal," will serve as a main destination for Internet users, providing them with news, entertainment and other services.
Building the portal requires more than a few quick fixes to the existing Go2Net Internet site, said Russell Horowitz, Go2Net's chief executive officer.
"To create the definitive offering, you need to bring together the leading companies with particular expertise in a number of areas, and create a company that is a convergence of that expertise," Horowitz said.
The joint venture, named Broadband Partners, does that by joining Vulcan's numerous properties with RCN (telecommunications), Go2Net (Internet information site), Charter Communications (the country's fourth-largest cable company) and High Speed Access (fast Internet cable connections).
It won't be easy.
"It's not like anyone's ever done this before," said David McCourt, RCN chief executive. "We cannot follow someone else's mold, because we're creating something from scratch."
The companies wouldn't divulge the specifics of the portal-in-progress. But, Here's one possible permutation, Horowitz said. Imagine viewing a movie trailer on television, clicking a button, finding out its next showing at the nearest theater and buying tickets over the television, all without getting off the couch.
Then, "apply it 12 different ways," Horowitz said. "This really looks at the point where the wired world comes together."
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Inside Technology appears Tuesdays in the Business section of The Seattle Times. You can contact Helen Jung by phone, 206-464-2742; fax, 206-382-8879; or e-mail, hjung@seattletimes.com.
Copyright © 1999 The Seattle Times Company |
