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

To: BillHoo who wrote (41189)	4/4/2000 11:58:00 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Microsoft Net Reach Far Beyond Browsers While the legal battle focuses on browsers, the software giant gains dominance online. by Nancy Weil and Terho Uimonen, IDG News Service April 4, 2000, 6:07 p.m. PT Even as Microsoft has fought a bitter court battle to defend itself against charges of using its PC operating system monopoly to quash competitors and make illegal inroads into the Internet browser market, the company has boosted its cyberspace presence. Microsoft's push into the Internet market has already been so successful that signs now show the world's largest software company becoming one of the globe's leading generators of Internet traffic. "Microsoft has a huge presence on the Web, and what many don't realize is that it is global in nature--at least one of their Web sites can be found at or very near the top in almost all major markets," says Brewster Kahle, president and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based Alexa Internet, an Amazon.com subsidiary that offers Web navigation software and services that also allow the firm to track users' surfing habits. Surprisingly, leading up to and even in the immediate aftermath of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's verdict yesterday, scant attention has been paid to the widespread empire Microsoft has built on the Internet, including everything from free e-mail services to a real estate and home mortgage business. Instead, the antitrust case has focused attention on the Internet browser war Microsoft waged against Netscape Communications (now part of America Online). Microsoft pitted its Internet Explorer browser against Netscape's rival product, Navigator. Judge Jackson ruled Monday that Microsoft violated two sections of the Sherman Antitrust Act and various U.S. state laws, behaving in a predatory manner to protect its operating system monopoly while the company illegally strove to stop competition in the Internet browser market. MSN Offers Free Access Concerns over Microsoft browser dominance might extend beyond software. Alexa's tracking shows that its users hit Microsoft's main Internet portal site, MSN.com, more than any other and that the main corporate Web site, Microsoft.com, is third in the number of user hits behind Yahoo's portal site. Microsoft Network announced Tuesday that it is offering users six months of free Internet access, which would seem guaranteed to drive even more traffic to the software giant's various Internet sites. Microsoft gave the world a glimpse of just how fast its Internet presence has grown with figures the company released Tuesday. In only six months, MSN.com expanded its reach by 12 percent and now boasts 39 million unique visitors per month, Microsoft says, citing statistics from Internet measurement services provider Media Metrix. Furthermore, MSN Hotmail, Microsoft's free Web-based e-mail service, has at least 61 million active accounts, while the MSN Messenger Service has more than 10 million active users, Microsoft says. MSN offers Web services in no fewer than 17 languages through sites in 32 countries, the company adds. Microsoft's Expanding Net Presence