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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gerald R. Lampton who wrote (21663)	11/23/1998 1:58:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Respond to of 24154

America Online Is Said to Be Readying a Bid for Netscape nytimes.com The purchase, an exchange of America Online shares for Netscape stock, is valued at roughly $4 billion. A completed deal could be announced as soon as Monday morning. But executives involved in the talks cautioned Sunday night that some details remained to be negotiated. The Netscape deal, if consummated, would realign three businesses at the forefront of the modern economy -- online services, Internet software and electronic commerce. It would strengthen two of Microsoft's leading rivals, America Online and Sun Microsystems. At the same time, however, it would end the independent existence of Netscape, an Internet software maker once regarded as the most serious challenger to Microsoft's dominance of the personal computer software market. Well, it seems to be a done deal, but I don't know if it particularly makes sense. AOL doesn't sell software, but then, Netscape maybe doesn't sell software either. Maybe it's all to do with this Web portal business. Sun keeps being mentioned, but not in any concrete way. Beats me. Still, executives involved in the talks said that the timing of the proposed deal was unrelated to the antitrust trial. Nor should it, one person noted, be regarded as "a single-minded attempt to circle the wagons against Microsoft." Indeed, America Online, according to one person close to the talks, plans to keep Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser as the default choice on its online service. One of the Government's allegations in the antitrust suit is that Microsoft won out over Netscape as the main browser for America Online because Microsoft used its Windows monopoly as a bargaining chip. To win the browser deal, Microsoft offered America Online prime real estate on the Windows desktop, the main screen on more than 90 percent of personal computers sold today. Staying with Microsoft's browser can be seen as proof that America Online still regards placement on the Windows desktop as crucial, as well as a careful step to avoid undermining one of the allegations in the Government's case. There's some kind of irony in this, given the history of Bill putting a bullet through MSN's head with the AOL deal, as just one part of the "air supply " operation, but it's a little too complicated for me to figure out at this hour. Cheers, Dan.