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

To: johnd who wrote (22350)	5/7/1999 7:05:00 PM
From: John Carpenter	Respond to of 74651

John, I agree. It's absolutely critical that MSFT act now while it still has the financial muscle- and MSFT HAS the financial muscle to usurp AOL. I know MSFT has the talent too. I don't know what the hell the problem is. I can't imagine that Gates and Ballmer can't figure this one out. It's ironic really. Gates became the richest man in the world because IBM let him have the operating system. Early next decade, Case may well become the world's richest man because MSFT let him have the content.

To: johnd who wrote (22350)	5/7/1999 7:07:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

(b) Push MSN - ISP like hell through marketing. [question for both you and John Carpenter:] But do you really think the ISP business has much of a future for MSFT? It seems clear to me that they're not willing to part with it just yet, but I don't see how it fits strategically into their future. What do you think? Why is it important enough to keep it and to promote it?

To: johnd who wrote (22350)	5/7/1999 10:52:00 PM
From: t2	Respond to of 74651

johnd, I guess MSFT could start this aggressive strategy on a short term basis. It would get more "eyeballs" to see MSN as the first screen. I think it is great portal site (might be a bit biased) and I use it a lot. The only time I used the AOL site was when i was a temporary customer---just hated the service on my first trial and then hated the customized browser on my second trial (just could not get the stand alone regular IE to work) and it was too slow in my area. Believe it or not, AT&T was much faster on the same regular telephone line. On a short term basis increasing market share for its portal site is not a bad idea. However, i believe the future for MSFT is to provide a co-branded portal site to new start ups. If you don't compete with them in the ISP business, they would be willing to work with you. I remember reading a story of a high speed ISP that was going for this co-branded MSN as its "home". Once the internet reaches a lot more households and people get used to it, I think the ISP biz is not going to be as important. In the short term, I agree with you. While the net is developing, you have to use all your weapons to make MSN as well accepted as their Office Suites or at least try very hard. MSFT is constantly weighing the benefits/costs of having an ISP. I bet they flip-flop over this one a lot. In the long term, I don't believe MSFT will want to be an ISP. In the short term it is just a matter of getting people "hooked" to the portal site and they might consider such a strategy for only this reason. They could easily turn around and just sell their ISP biz in the USA to AT&T just as they did in Canada a while back. In my area MSN internet access was slow, just like AOL. BTW--I had read that MSFT is considering spinning off MSN. That makes a lot of sense. I could see it grow into a high market cap company after it is done with the takeovers that are expected. If it starts out 90% owned by MSFT, it would probably get to the point where it is only 51 percent owned from all the acquisitions. It will make the site a lot better as well. It could also open up the possibility of new alliances and partnerships, even including companies like Sun Microsystems. I bet Sun would be more than willing if asked.