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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Cecil who wrote (14654)	5/4/1999 4:19:00 PM
From: im a survivor	Respond to of 41369

AOL's Pittman seeking broadband Confirms talks to expand service, declines specifics By Steve Gelsi, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 4:09 PM ET May 4, 1999 NewsWatch NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- America Online is "in discussions with everyone who can deliver broadband service," President Bob Pittman said Tuesday at the AdTech advertising conference. Pittman declined to comment on reports that America Online (AOL: news, msgs) is involved in the bidding war between AT&T (T: news, msgs) and Comcast (CMCSK: news, msgs) about acquiring MediaOne (UMG: news, msgs). AOL NYSE Last Chg. 127 7/8 -5 1/4 % Chg. Vol. -3.94% 22,228,300 Day Lo. Day Hi. 127 5/8 137 1/4 Open Prev. 132 133 1/8 As of May 04/99 4:16 pm ET Last Trade May 04/99 3:56 pm ET 20 MIN. DELAY But the AOL president and chief operating officer said he's interested in delivering more broadband content to members. He declined to say if AOL was mulling any acquisitions or who the company is approaching. "It's an upgrade feature," Pittman said of broadband, which speeds Web access and provides better sound and video capabilities. "We continue to look at the most effective way to put out broadband. We have no magic strategy. Our strategy is to serve the consumer." AOL already has deals with Bell Atlantic and SBC Communications to develop broadband. Other players involved include most major telephone firms, cable TV operators, and Internet firms such as AtHome. MediaOne also said last week that AOL and Microsoft were involved in discussions about a rival deal to challenge AT&T's blockbuster bid, which upstaged an earlier offer by Comcast. Over the weekend, MediaOne said it accepted AT&T's offer. Comcast now has three days to counter offer. Keynote At a keynote speech to about 700 advertising pros at the Hyatt Embarcadero, Pittman said he first realized the power of the Web as an ad medium while working as a marketer for Century 21. He spent $1 million on an ad buy on AOL, and $30 million on a TV campaign -- both aimed at generating sales leads. The online ad got a bigger response at a fraction of the cost. Cold water Pittman threw some cold water on one of the bigger initiatives among online advertisers -- to develop rich media ads with more video and sound to attract reader interest. He said online ads shouldn't be loud and invasive like TV ads, because consumers are already paying attention when they're online. "It turns consumers off," he said. "The consumer gets mad if you push too much media on them." Pittman said AOL is pursing its AOL Anywhere strategy of providing interactive features in cell phones and other appliances. America Online doesn't break out its advertising revenue from its e-commerce revenue, because the two are inseparable on the Web, he said. About 60 percent of AOL members have bought something online -- many are motivated by ads, which often offer transactional capabilities.