>>Report: America Online in works to buy Netscape
This started already last week when Netscape fired all of their contractors.
The deal apparently is done; just a matter of the final details.
AOL bought Netscape's portal for nothing (swap stock and take over it, thus
basically get their stock back again.) Since SUN gets the servers and the
browser is worthless since it's public domain, AOL gets the brand name and
the portal. AOL's interface will be the Netscape browser. Will Netscape
users abandon the Netscape browser? Will Netscape True Believers become AOL
users? Time to polish off those AOL diskettes.
What a sad end to Netscape. Already in early 1998, I heard VCs at
conferences describe Netscape as a Dead Man Walking. Marc Andreassen sold
off a large chunk of his stock; that was bad news. Recruiters didn't bother
with Netscape since they were on a hiring freeze. In the Spring, they fired
all of their contractors; there were rumors that they would be bought by IBM
or a consortium including SUN. By the summer, we would often wonder who
would buy Netscape and whether it was worth buying at all.
What an irony. Remember when AOL users were newbies and AOL had to teach its
users how to post on Usenet without being flamed? AOL, the ultimate luser
company, now owns Netscape.
It's not a marriage; it's serial killer rape. AOL's CEO Steve Case testified
at the Microsoft trial how they misled Netscape to the alter and then left
them waiting there while AOL took the Microsoft browser and $1 million.
Netscape employees must be quite aware of how AOL screwed them. I doubt many
of them will stay. UNIX engineers working for AOL? It'll look really great
on the resume. But then again, AOL doesn't want the employees. They bought
the name and the portal. AOL will dismember Netscape.
___________________________________________________
Andreas Ramos [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.andreas.com
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
