Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Nicholas Thompson who wrote (7052)	3/28/1999 6:49:00 PM
From: Benkea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Nicholas: "You never know, AT&T could buy athm outright at a 50% premium and excite could founder in a general market slump." If ATHM got bought out at a 50% premium (a) highly unlikely at what would be near $25 bil (b) T has swallowed plenty already and had to borrow $8 bil to do it, then XCIT would also climb by the same amount as its' destiny is "currently" 100% tied to ATHM stock price. "However, I think it would be worthwhile to think about the effects a cancellation of the merger would have." Yep, that would certainly suck for me.

To: Nicholas Thompson who wrote (7052)	3/29/1999 12:15:00 AM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Respond to of 29970

New (I hope) Fortune Opinion Piece Merge Broadband Cable Efforts It's time for the cable industry to come to its senses. Instead of spending unnecessary effort and money building two competing broadband Internet services, Road Runner and @Home, they should come together and merge the two efforts. The real competition for the cable companies are the Baby Bell phone companies and their broadband offering, DSL. The faster the cable companies realize that, the better. Whichever industry gets to the customer first with a fast, reliable, and affordable service will end up with the lion's share of the market. Today the cable companies are ahead with 500,000 or so broadband Internet access customers. There are less than 100,000 DSL customers. But some of the phone companies, such as US West, are preparing to move quickly, and the number of DSL subscribers could rocket-up fast. That's why the cable companies need to move soon, and there's every indication they will. The first impetus to merging Road Runner and @Home happened last month. That's when AT&T and Time Warner announced they had struck a deal for AT&T to offer phone service over Time Warner's cable systems. AT&T plans to do the same with its recently purchased TCI cable system. (This is probably a good place to offer the disclaimer that Fortune is owned by Time Warner, and I am a Time Warner employee. However I have no inside knowledge of any of Time Warner's plans regarding its cable efforts.) The reason the deal between AT&T and Time Warner is important, is because AT&T/TCI is the largest investor in @Home, and Time Warner is a leading investor in Road Runner. If the two companies are going to cooperate on voice, it would only make sense for them to cooperate on broadband data as well. The second reason we are likely to see Road Runner and @Home merge soon is the deal announced this week that Comcast cable is buying the MediaOne cable company. Comcast is a leading investor in @Home, and MediaOne is, like Time Warner, a leading investor in Road Runner. If Comcast's acquisition of MediaOne goes through, you can almost be assured that Road Runner and @Home will merge. There is no way that Comcast will pursue two different broadband strategies, and it is not likely to simply chose one over the other. What would a merger of the two broadband efforts look like? One thing you can be sure of, @Home CEO Tom Jermoluk would keep his job. That's because Road Runner has been without a permanent CEO since last fall. The lack of a CEO has hurt Road Runner at a critical time. And @Home has nearly twice as many customers as Road Runner. Second, the combined entity would have a wealth of programming. @Home has acquired Excite, one of the leading Internet portals. Then, there are all the services that @Home and Road Runner have already lined up. In the end, the merging of the two cable efforts will spur faster deployment of broadband Internet to the home. Strong competition between the Baby Bells and the cable companies will bring better service and lower prices. And that will mean a quicker evolution of the whole Internet industry. cgi.pathfinder.com