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To: Mooster who wrote (21421)	4/22/2000 2:33:00 PM
From: gpowell	Respond to of 29970

Excite is gone. We are now back @HOME.

To: Mooster who wrote (21421)	4/23/2000 12:27:00 AM
From: Solid	Respond to of 29970

Correlation is highest when competition enters: Excite, Yahoo, Lycos, etc. Do you Yahoo? So, I am Kenworth and I make trucks. Trucks that supply ALL the necessary goods for OTHER businesses across the planet. There ARE other means of transportation, but I have a big 'hunk' of the truck market. I compete with other truck manufacture's. I do not need to compete with THE PRODUCERS of THE PRODUCTS I carry. Unless I wish to START ANOTHER BUSINESS. Good, bad or indifferent...we wish...Excite is another business and it competes with THE PRODUCERS and with THE PRODUCT that ATHM was designed to carry. This can be argued a million ways to Sunday. How far along would ATHM's business plan and stock price be had it stuck with the INFRASTRUCTURE by being The Kenworth of cable BB? Had ATHM opted for carriage fees, which have been apparently granted in Seattle, would AOL and OA be the BIG HEAVY they have been? By branding their excite they have no choice but TO BE better then anyone else, including AOL. That can be a tall order for a cable BB provider getting up to speed and covering the market and working out all their partnered agreements and meeting satisfaction requirements and keeping THE BEST employees happy. Regardless of your religious beliefs there is wisdom in the Bible, 'You can not follow two masters.' Many think Excite is a joke. Some like parts of it. Some most of it. Almost all I have read, and from my use of it, say it is pretty mediocre. That will not cut it in the future. It did not cut it with their long awaited BB platform release...a glorious non-issue that helped the stock fall from grace even further and even faster no doubt. GE does many things and many things well. E@home may in the future, I sincerely hope so should they stay together, but thus far I have not seen it and the split attention has not appeared to help matters. The CC did not seem to mention anything about increased Ad revenues from the great Excite nor its free dial-up counter part. Why? Sales must not be that hot. Too bad, AOL had a 40 something % increase in Ad revs this quarter, to the tune of over 500 million...in one quarter! E@home has a hill to climb that they did not have to a year ago. Maybe it will be a good thing, TJ thinks so. Bell thinks so. Maybe TJ and Bell won't be around to see it... Don't think they have to 'brand' ATHM cable, or DSL backbone as it will sell as quickly as they can get to the homes. It sells itself...ever see it or do you use it? Then you know what I mean. RR, ATHM or Dr. Zulu brand of BB if it is near you most will take it for the speed. Their key is their lock on the backbone and the knowledge they have in design and deployment of the network. They have a 20 yr. lease from T for backbone and are in first class with the MSO's. This they do not so much need to brand as to impliment, at warp speed but with maximum customer satisfaction. Invite in the best and brightest producers of CONTENT that are out there, to access over their backbone, their HUGE subscription audience here AND overseas. Sub fees to zero? Do you get free TV over cable? And it has been out how many years? Rabbit ears are cheap, why so many still use cable and PAY FOR TV that is FREE with rabbit ears? Competition? How many still have cable vs. satellite? I believe the physics of wireless and satellite and even twisted wire for DSL will be limits for quite some time that fiber shall capitalize upon. What sticks in my mind is a number... 2.5 trillion bits of information per second within two years will be possible over fiber...who will be in the best postition to make the transition to pure as time passes... not satellite not twisted copper wires not wireless There is more to branding then meets the eye. 'If you build it they will come.'