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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (27576)	4/5/2001 12:42:22 AM
From: Ron Dior	Respond to of 29970

The problem is that the available market is saturating within in the bounds of @Home's conception and definition of itself. How does a company change it's definition of itself? It would appear that all leadership would have to change. "Can't teach an old dog new tricks" philosophy. @Home is doomed as a separate corporation unless they change spots in the way I have stated in the past. Changing their spots does not seem doable for them. They have had more than enough time to figure it out and have failed miserably. Maybe the separate corporation issue is the only thing left that can be changed. Ron Dior

To: ahhaha who wrote (27576)	4/5/2001 3:47:50 AM
From: E. Davies	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

The problem is that the available market is saturating within in the bounds of @Home's conception and definition of itself This is of course the heart of the matter, and the heart of many discussions we have had here for years. What % of homes are willing to pay $40/month for cable internet- and how close are we to reaching that % in established markets? ATHM has a pretty good feel for this by now, but it seems that no one is asking or they are simply not telling. How is it that you think you know? There is still a lot of untapped market however. Roughly half the footprint is still unwired. Again I suspect the MSO's are taking it slow so as to not overextend themselves. You are probably right that the install cost is the more minor of the issue relative to the cost of upgrading the wiring. ATHM doesn't have it in them to redefine broadband internet enough to radically change the demand for their product. It was probably naive to think that they ever could have, but it would have been nice to at least see them try. I still remember an AOL exec saying something to the effect of broadband isn't gonna happen until AOL lets it happen. He was right, even more so now that AOL is TWX too. AOL is the only one with the influence to reshape the internet into a broadband friendly enviroment. Even MSFT and YHOO are clueless. ATHM needs to go crawling to AOL on it's knees and beg to be AOL's "dumb pipe". That would be the first step towards reviving much of the entire internet economy. Way better a move than the bake sale thingy. Eric