America Online Inc. But then, there doesn't seem to be much to make merry about. The latest version is two years overdue. Netscape, headquartered in this Silicon Valley community, was the first company to make it possible for ordinary people to experience the Internet. For all the allure of mergers, however, most are disappointing. A recent study by KPMG, for example, found that 83 percent of the 700 most expensive mergers during the past three years failed to increase shareholder value.
Mergers involving Internet companies are likely to be no different.
Another of the widely hyped recent deals, the combination of access provider At Home with the portal Excite, has been rumored to be on the rocks ever since it was consummated. Time Warner Inc. The news was accompanied by hype and promises that were almost identical to those employed during the Netscape acquisition. In both cases, there were also warnings about the difficulty of melding two disparate corporate cultures. With Netscape, a much more freewheeling place than the rather staid AOL, those scenarios have been largely borne out. It didn't help.