In retrospect, we all committed the cardinal business sin of overestimating the American public. It's not technical supremacy, quality, and value that woo American consumers. It's convenience, hype, and contagion that hook us, and then inertia, trust, and brand that lock us in. Both Microsoft and AOL have ably demonstrated this phenomenon. It's true, the FCC has insisted that AOL open the messaging protocol to broadband competitors, but AOL will still have the subscriber base.
Instant messaging is a natural addition to teen-oriented cable packages.
If this strikes you as silly and frivolous, consider the possibility that you might not be cut out for marketing to the American public, but you can be sure that AOL is. On the downside, by going the merger route rather than the partnership path, AOL clearly spits in the face of new-economy doctrine , by taking on weighty assets without a lock on outsized returns. Maybe the new Microsoft ignored a new-economy partnership model fashioned by the old Microsoft. Our long term totals include both our realized and unrealized gains. For instance, we have sold portions of AOL and Amazon in the past, and those realized gains are included in our total returns for these stocks.