Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Is it time to short AOL?

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:8/7/1999; 2:33:57 PM
Topic:Is it time to short AOL?
Msg #:9255 (In response to 9254)
Prev/Next:9254 / 9256

$180 million?

The tiniest of drops in the bucket.

AOL's market capitalization is $91.730 Billion.

On an average trading day AOL's market value fluctuates by 10 Mirabilis's.

Source: Quote.Yahoo.Com.

AOL vs Microsoft was destiny

Your analysis has been good up to this point. AOL was always lined up to be Microsoft's next target after they finished with Netscape. More than Oracle (the official Enterprise Company) and Sun (Linux will dispense with them) AOL sits square in the middle of where Microsoft wants to always be -- the mass market choice, the consumer platform.

We should be grateful that MS is competing with AOL this way. Getting access costs close to zero will broaden the reach of the net because AOL is sure to match them dollar for dollar. And Microsoft will just wait until the Internet bubble bursts (if it ever does) and then AOL will have to show real profits to command their stock price.

Until then, MS will have to grow to be able to provide the kind of service AOL provides. I don't think there's anyone they could acquire to do that, but maybe I'm missing something. People sniff at AOL, but what they do is hard. Providing a network that gives any response to as many users as they have is quite an accomplishment.

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:51:47 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.