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

To: LindyBill who wrote (15330)	1/31/1999 2:49:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

The cable companies have too much control. The other factor is that no new cable lines are necessary. These costs have already been incurred for the most part, whereas any alternative will mean a lot of costs to set up the network. I think this why AT&T got so interested in cable---internet and local phone access. I don't know how big TCI is---but if anyone has any information of what the ranking of cable companies in terms of size, I would appreciate it. Then there is Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen who bought cable companies. Both Allen and Armstrong (AT%T) seem to be intelligent executives who realized how much potential cable has. (Actually Allen may not be that smart since he sold so much of his MSFT shares). Consider how interested MSFT got in cable. Their first big move was to invest in Comcast cable. That is what pushed up stock prices in cable companies--an endorsement in cable technology by Microsoft. To sum up---AOL has got the brand name but not the network it really needs.

To: LindyBill who wrote (15330)	1/31/1999 2:52:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

I am actually going to find some buying opportunities in Canadian cable companies--- expecting some sort of move by MSFT in a cable market that is similiar to the American market. Would not be surprised to see AT&T (or Worldcom etc) make more moves.

To: LindyBill who wrote (15330)	1/31/1999 10:55:00 PM
From: Xenogenetic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

I don't like to use the Government to change the way a company does business, but the cable companies all have monopolies from the Government, so there is no other choice but to force them to do what the government forced Bell Telephone to do, ie: open up to competition It does not look like this is going to happen. Too bad. I hate to say it, but the lines will in fact be opened up. Its just a question of when. Realize that the govt must allow these monopolies or else things would never get off the ground. What is done is the govt grants the monopoly in exchange for these companies infrastructure $$$ and gives them a head start. Once they get up and started and make back their sunk costs, the govt allows open access and lets other competitors try to win over the consumer from the entrenched monopolist.