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

To: RTev who wrote (22386)	5/9/1999 1:22:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

RTev, Virtually all of MSN is now a pure internet service. You can see any of it using any internet connection. AOL, on the other hand, has significant content -- message boards, chat rooms, and their proprietary email system -- that cannot be accessed from an ISP That is my understanding as well. That part of Bill's comments puzzled me as well. MSN is more like a Yahoo!, open to all web users. If 83% of AOL's revenue comes from the ISP part of their business, I can see why they would not want it opened up to non-AOL subscribers just yet. MSN has great reach to web users even though the ISP subscriptions are not very high. It appears that MSFT made a great decision in their particular circumstances. IMHO, it is only a matter of time before AOL does the same thing--maybe a long time. I think if we get ISP pricing war, AOL will open up so that its reach is increased. I imagine that is an area of major concern for them, risk losing ISP subsriptions weighed against increases in "hits" on their site. I would be able to go to the cheapest ISP (can't be any slower than AOL) and just head to the AOL site after logging on. The risk of not opening up is that a non-AOL subcribers (including the small no-frills ISPs) will get "hooked" on other portal sites like Yahoo and MSN. It would be harder to attact these people to the AOL web site later----sort of like an Office or Windows effect. AOL has achieved the same thing with its current users (got them hooked) but future growth is their concern. BTW--We could see drops in the growth rate of ISP subsciptions if AOL opened up. In their case, it just may not be worth it to take the chance in the near future because revenue and EPS growth rate drops will cause the stock to crash. They don't want that to happen. However, in the long run they don't have a choice unless of course cable lines are opened up to them in a big way.

To: RTev who wrote (22386)	5/9/1999 1:40:00 PM
From: Tom Aellis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

RTev, while dialing up your ISP you simply select TCP/IP as your service on AOL software and it's exactly like dialing in. I use it via ISDN and it rocks.