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| Author | Topic: America Online (AOL) |
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InvestorGuide Daily Administrator |
posted 12-22-1999 06:23 PM
 
America Online announced that it will acquire MapQuest.com, a provider of online mapping and navigation services, for $1.1 billion in stock. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ic/xml/99/12/22/991222icmapquest.xml |
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slurm |
posted 12-22-1999 04:27 PM
Good question. I'd guess that the Yahoo/Mapquest deal extends over some period of time, for example a year, and Yahoo wouldn't be able to get out of it right away. When it does end, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't renew the deal, since Yahoo and AOL are increasingly becoming direct competitors. On the other hand, Yahoo needs maps, and I think Mapquest is clearly the best company out there. |
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MaxPower |
posted 12-22-1999 02:56 PM
This just in - "This morning, AOL announced that it is acquiring online mapmaker MapQuest.com in a stock swap valued at about $1.1 billion. Under the deal, each MapQuest share will be converted into 0.31558 of an AOL share, which works out to a value of $26.82 per share based on AOL's closing price yesterday. That's roughly the same price as the closing price of MapQuest's shares last Friday, prior to the stock's 21% run-up over the past two trading days ahead of the deal. Not surprisingly, MapQuest's shares quickly gave back most of this week's gain this morning as buy-on-the-rumor traders completed their time-worn Wall Street pas de deux by selling on the news." How will this effect MapQuest's current relationship with AOL competitor Yahoo? |
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newinvestor |
posted 12-21-1999 09:48 AM
An interesting argument is brought up at the end of this article... The education of these new customers who are not online yet will be as important if not more important than the low cost of the access. I tend to agree. Much of the market that is not yet online is not online because they don't own a computer. The free access or low cost access providers will have to jump over that hurdle as well. |
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InvestorGuide Weekly Administrator |
posted 12-21-1999 09:40 AM
AOL and other fee-based ISPs are facing a growing threat as a number of new rivals are offering free or low-cost web access. http://www.mercurynews.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/1559l.htm |
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bobcobb |
posted 12-19-1999 07:06 PM
I don't know what the exact arrangement will be, but the articles I read did indicate that there would be lower cost access for Wal-Mart customers. I agree gatsby, if this is true it'll be really hard for AOL to pull the wool over the customers eyes. They've done it before though. They know a lot of good tricks. |
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JHirsch |
posted 12-17-1999 11:56 AM
"Will those paying $20 a month become a Walmart customer just for a cheaper bill?" Gatsby, do you know what the price of the access will be? I was assuming that it was the same for all AOL subscribers whether they come from Wal-Mart or not. Its possible that the wal-mart promotion will offer a few free months, but i didn't get the impression that it was cheaper than normal AOL subscribers. As far as the timing of the announcement I don't think it was that bad. They probably would have liked to be before the kmart agreement, but kmart and yahoo beat them to the punch I think... |
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gatsby |
posted 12-17-1999 10:38 AM
MP, interesting timing on this announcement, yes? Although the glaring difference here is that AOL is offering "low-cost access", whereas Kmart's deal is going to be free access. I wonder how AOL's deal will effect their current subscriber base, once this new tiered-pricing structure comes into existence. Will those paying $20 a month become a Walmart customer just for a cheaper bill? Or will they be annoyed that those with access to a Walmart can get cheaper access, and they who don't still have to pay $20 (and thus maybe decide to go elsewhere)? People never like feeling that others are getting a better deal, so a tiered-pricing structure for AOL could be quite dangerous. Sure it happens all the time on most industries, but this will be an interesting case study. |
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InvestorGuide Daily Administrator |
posted 12-16-1999 06:27 PM
Wal-Mart, AOL are teaming up to bring e-commerce to small town America. AOL will offer low-cost internet access to Wal-Mart's millions of customers, many of whom have no local internet access options. http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9912164walaol |
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MaxPower |
posted 12-16-1999 09:18 AM
AOL may finally have to start dealing with losing customers to free email service. There was talk awhile back on this board on whether or not ad-based free ISP access would hurt AOL. But Yahoo's new agreement with KMart to provide free access to KMart's customers, not ad-based, might finally be a serious threat to AOL's $20/month charge. I'd rather be a KMart customer than have ads on my computer I can't get rid of. What do you all think? |
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JHirsch |
posted 12-14-1999 03:58 PM
I'm love the clicks and bricks ideas... and AOL is rumored to be talking to Wal-Mart about an agreement. I think it would be an amazing deal for both parties. Wal-Mart has between 90-120 million visitors in its stores every day... that's 5 times as many people as AOL has total. I tend to agree with the conventional wisdom on this one in that Wal-Mart shoppers are more likely to be those not connected to the net yet. What better way to get them to be than to offer a free trial of AOL right in the checkout lines and brand it all around the store. If this goes through I see AOL getting a couple million subscribers from it. Obviously no terms of the deal are available since there is no deal yet... but the rumors are certainly helping AOL and Wal-Mart stock They are both up sharply on this news. Jake |
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infooverload |
posted 12-10-1999 10:48 AM
It seems odd to me that AOL pulled a complete about-face on this one...that is if they were legit and sincere to begin with. After much criticism from the Internet community for blocking MSFT's attempts in July, AOL had announced that it would work closely with the Internet Engineering Task Force to develop an instant messaging standard. AOL also created an advisory committee on instant messaging standards that includes top executives from Novell, RealNetworks, and Apple. Yet now they are blocking AT&T? All this says to me is that AOL wasn't serious from the beginning, they only made the moves for PR reasons. Way to stand by public statements, AOL. |
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InvestorGuide Daily Administrator |
posted 12-09-1999 05:20 PM
AOL is blocking instant messaging traffic between users of its popular Instant Messenger software and the latest version of AT&T's I M Here Service, which was launched yesterday. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ic/xml/99/12/09/991209icaim.xml |
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smario |
posted 12-01-1999 10:54 AM
infooverload - I too think MSFT's recent PR nightmare may have something to do with 'giving up' (makes them look good). netinvestor - Good points. I've always preferred phone calls to email primarily because of the lag time involved in an email (you're not sure when they will read it, and not always confident in the delivery if your mail provider has issues). Whereas I can call you up immediately on the phone if need be. Yet with instant messaging, assuming the person is online (and who won't have a high-speed dedicated connection five years from now?), it's real-time baby. No more lag time, and no more LD costs. And in business to business, these are two important factors - time and money. |
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netinvestor |
posted 12-01-1999 09:50 AM
Infooverload, I certainly agree that this was a win for AOL, if only in that it showed that Microsoft could be beaten. I do also think that had it not been for the looming DOJ case Microsoft might have put up more of a fight. The thing is AOL doesn't seem to be running with this Instant Messaging. Obviously its only been a week or so since they "won" the battle, but I think the real money to be made in this instant messaging arena is with business to business messaging with full audio and video hookups. If they can get businesses to sign on to this and make it the standard for businesses. Lotus and Microsoft have been integrating their IM solutions into their enterprise offerings, putting them in a position to exploit the growing opportunities in the B2B marketplace. AOL isn't doing this yet and they need to if they want to capitalize on their Instant Messaging win. |
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