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

To: E. Davies who wrote (10401)	6/5/1999 1:15:00 AM
From: larry	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

I think that T/ATHM will win the ridiculous verdict in the future. But the damage is done, and it will take a while for ATHM to regain its momentum. Here is why T/ATHM will win. In this modern technology world you cannot stand still, so I saw broadband as the future and believed that T/ATHM had the superior broadband strategy to AOL's apparently convoluted DSL/satellite/fight cable ISP service with litigation strategy. In switching from AOL to ATHM, I weighed heavily what I knew about antritrust law. By the way, it is not as complicated as it sounds. Common sense applies. At the time I switched from AOL to ATHM the Portland case was hanging out there. But I believed that the FCC would trump any decision in Portland and would accept the proposition that there were more antitrust benefits by allowing T to build the infrastructure for broadband and establish real competition in local phone service than any detriment in giving T/ATHM a temporary monopoly while broadband was still in its infancy. After all, T has to be rewarded for making the investment to upgrade the pipes. In any event, the FCC could regulate T/ATHM 5-10 years down the road if T started to develop real monopolistic power. As things panned out, the FCC adopted the position I thought it would. FCC Chairman Kennard hinted that the FCC would take a hands off approach and would not require open cable internet access. Unfortately, a Federal District Court judge in Portland, who seems owe some favors in return for his appointment to the bench, today upheld the Portland ordinance, and changed the landscape of telecommunications for the entire USA. This judicial action was clearly a usurpation of the authority of the FCC, whom Congress has chosen, to shape the national policy on telecommunications issues including open access. My first reaction to the ruling was, what kind of knucklehead judge would do this. Then I remembered the Texas case where a Texas District Court Judge struck down parts of an Act of the US Congress which required the Baby Bells to open local phone access prior to gaining permission to sell long distance phone service. The case was overturned by the US Court of Appeals. The same will happen here. enjoy, larry