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

To: sillen who wrote (8440)	4/22/1999 11:36:00 PM
From: RTev	Respond to of 29970

AT&T buying MediaOne is just the kind of action the FCC would like to see; not necessarily involving AT&T but in general. I agree that the MSO part of the deal looks easy from a regulatory standpoint. The various agencies have shown with BEL + Nynex + GTE and SBC + Telesys + Ameritech that they don't mind regional expansion. According to CNET, even after the merger, AT&T Broadband would still be short of 50% of the cable market so that doesn't ring the trust bells too loudly. news.com This story, by the way, sees an RR/ATHM merger as likely: @Home and Road Runner discussed a merger in the past and @Home executives appear to remain open to a deal, according to executives. Wall Street and financial analysts, however, seem to think a deal is likely. But Microsoft could have a say in the matter. The software giant invested $1 billion in Comcast last year and the company is a 10 percent stakeholder in Road Runner, but it seems clear that Gates' goal goes far beyond profits. ... Leichtman said the FCC would prefer that no single cable operator control more than 30 percent of the homes in nation. But if it does acquire MediaOne, AT&T would exceed that threshold, he said. The Internet portion of Armstrong's plan still could be threatened if policymakers bend to demands by AOL, other Internet service providers, and consumer groups to open up cable networks for use by all ISPs, not just affiliated companies like @Home. ... "What's worse, AT&T is attempting to lock in a monopoly over the Internet by combining a stranglehold on local cable lines with a dominant control of the national Internet backbone," Roellig [of USWest] added. I still think they're wrong, but then again...