Bill Gates and Microsoft can easily match AOL's mean streak. But AOL is also sneaky. Witness how it maneuvered the SEC into forgiving their financial transgressions. How it escaped heat when it got caught selling members' private info to spammers. How it raised prices higher than anyone else and got away with it.
Names are golden.
While many avoid the Internet access business as too difficult, AOL sees gold in the names and credit card numbers it collects with each new subscriber. Before we bow down to King Steve Case, there is one chink in the armor. AOL doesn't have an angle on broadband distribution. Click for more . In the end I'm guessing AOL will buy its own cable companies and then lock everybody else out.