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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (41032)	4/4/2000 8:54:00 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Alert: Csfb Reiterates Microsoft at Strong Buy (NasdaqNM:MSFT) (Microsoft, in Bid to Catch AOL, to Offer Six Months of Free Online Access By Dina Bass Redmond, Washington, April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. said it will offer six months of free Internet access to new subscribers of its Microsoft Network online service in a bid to catch up with No. 1 online service, America Online Inc. The offer, which Microsoft said will cause it to just break even on these subscribers, applies only to customers who sign up for a full year of access. Microsoft said the offer is available through June 30. MSN service normally costs $21.95 a month The world's top software maker is trying, after several false starts in the Internet access business, to catch up to America Online, which has more than 22 million subscribers. Microsoft has 2.5 million subscribers. ``We think we have the right product for consumers, we just have to market it better,' said Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Marketing for MSN. Microsoft has set beating AOL in subscriber growth as its goal for this year. The company said it added 500,000 subscribers in the past four months. America Online added 1.8 million subscribers in its fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31. Still, Microsoft is adding new subscribers at a faster rate than before. It took six months to nine months to go from 1.5 million to 2 million subscribers, compared with four months to gain the last 500,000 to reach the current totals, Mehdi said. Microsoft said it's aiming to add 1 million subscribers next quarter. Microsoft also hopes the success of its MSN.com Web site -- usually ranked among the three most popular Web sites -- will help it attract new subscribers. The company will add links and banners to its Web sites that take users to an MSN sign-up page. It will also promote the offer through a $40 million advertising campaign during the next three months.