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

3 reasons this is not an attractive deal

Author:Phil Wolff
Posted:11/24/1998; 9:44:15 AM
Topic:AOL Acquires Netscape
Msg #:456 (In response to 448)
Prev/Next:455 / 457

I don't think this would be a good deal for Netscape and its stakeholders on three counts:

1. As already mentioned, Netscape's market cap is about $4 Billion so the offer is not an especially good deal. (figures from http://quote.yahoo.com/q?s=nscp&d=v4)

2. software/portal marketing synergy would be lost if the deal breaks up NSCP. Mozilla drives traffic and the brand.

3. Back end apps are fundamental to the next generation "portal" and Netscape is ahead of the rest in building that platform. Although AOL has cash, I see SAP or Peoplesoft as better suitors. (More on this are at http://www.slip.net/~pwolff/index.html#browserserver.)

Portals are moving to more robust business apps. They'll move beyond their base services of search, communication (mail, calendar, chat, web hosting) like those offered by Ariba (ORM), Action (workflow), Netmosphere (project managment), and Financial Engines (investment advice). Protocols and standards are making it easier for portals to combine back end services and systems from various vendors. Keys: protocols like LDAP (the directory services protocol), SWAP (the Simple Workflow Access Protocol), the ietf calendaring standards, and commerce transaction standards.

You may also see partnerships between portals and [ERP vendors or Intuit] to offer actual clientless bookkeeping (and the rest of their business processes) via the web. Driving forces: - synergy among software categories, - universal access and market share, - scalability, - life cycle management.

Breaking up Netscape along portal/server lines destroys Netcenter's chance to really build this, and erodes the 12-18 month value of the portal. This runs counter to a larger trend in web application service hosting.

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:45:55 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.