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

To: ahhaha who wrote (10578)	6/6/1999 5:01:00 AM
From: FR1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

I agree that neither side had their best lawyers at bat. Here are a few other zingers: Likewise, financial issues should be relatively simple to resolve, because the @Home contracts provide for a simple revenue split between the cable owner and the Internet service provider.... Internet service providers would have the opportunity to receive the same quality of access and be charged the same rate as would ATT/TCI's affiliate @Home. T can argue that the revenue received from ATHM is not just a simple revenue split because T owns 44% of ATHM stock which allows T to participate in rewards from ad revenue. Will AOL give up 44% of its stock to make things equivalent? ATT/TCI may argue that the City and County cannot actually resolve disputes except by engaging in a prohibited regulation of transmission technology. That is not the case, however. If the various competing Internet service providers are provided with equivalent access, the defendants are utterly indifferent as to the technology used. I think T and AOL would have a lot to argue about over the cost and type of technology needed. Who is going to resolve the technical/financial dispute? The Elks club from the City of Portland, I guess. There are lots of other items. IMHO AOLs goal is to get the court to regulate prices. The plan AOL has is to get any court to issue a ruling declaring “Open Access” or “Equal Access” legal. Then AOL comes back to the court and says that T is not following the court order and the court must enforce its decision. This will force the court to declare what “Equal” really means in dollars and cents. Game over – AOL winner. Too bad T lost the bid for AOL long ago. T and AOL would have been great partners – both believe in monopoly. If AOL and ATHM/T merged none of this would be happening. All would be quiet on the western front.