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

To: Steve Robinett who wrote (36926)	1/10/2000 6:44:00 PM
From: E. Davies	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

This attempt at vertical integration, IMO, has reduced the future growth potential of the combined companies and their combined valuation Only if (as you say) the sum of the parts is less than (or equal to) the whole. What if the sum of the parts is greater? Sure Sports Illustrated is never going to grow as fast as AOL. But what will having Sports Illustrated (or more a more powerful example might be CNN) do to AOL revenues? Will AOL be able to bring more viewers to CNN.com? You bet they will. An even more radical (and unsettling) possibility is that they may even require that CNN.com become available only to AOL subscribers. AOL could own the internet with this much content and distribution power. And we all know they have that kind of mentality too. Even to the point where monopoly issues might be involved. Heck- Case has the power to make Bill Gates look small time. I can not decide if AOL/TWX is going to be a good investment at these prices- but it is going to be a world dominating company. Eric