The New Microsoft?
Created | Updated Jun 20, 2003
Last week we mentioned the merger of 'AOL' (America OnLine) and 'Time Warner'. Although a
merger normally means that both companies profit equally from the deal. Time Warner own,
amongst other things, Warner Brothers and the Time magazine. AOL have a big customer base and
a large interest in Netscape. AOL would definitely seem to have come out the better in this
one. So that makes AOL one of the biggest companies around at the moment, but are they content
at that? It would seem not.
Warner Music, part of Time Warner, are now buying the EMI music company. Between them, Time
Warner and EMI account for almost a quarter of all cd sales. That is one big company. Add to
that the vast cable network of Time Warner's now available to AOL to run their internet
connections, thus eliminating their bandwidth problems, and you realise that, in the near
future, AOL subscribers will be able to buy all their music and films through the internet and
have them sent back down the line to their televisions and computers. AOL is already the
biggest internet service provider (ISP) in America, these two mergers can only secure that
position and raises the possibility of them becoming the only ISP there.
AOL also have a large stake in the UK and, since introducing the £9.99 a month (with a
penny a minute connection reducing the phone bill), their share of the market there is also
growing. Are we seeing the emergence of a super ISP? The internet's equivalent of Microsoft
perhaps; AOL already own the Netscape browser, now they have the cable network, the connection
infrastructure, the client base and the entertainment to sell through it all. Not only that
but there are rumours in the financial world that they are looking into investing heavily in
Mannesmaan, a Germany based mobile phone operator.
As we said last week, 'You've got mail, but they've got everything else.'
