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The Almighty Buck

AT&T possibly to purchase MSN-No Deal 30

Posted by Hemos from the more-mergers dept.
vab writes "Perhaps looking to further weaken the U.S. Gov't anti-trust case with another MegaMerger/Deal Microsoft is in talks with AT&T to sell AT&T MSN and other Microsoft media properties, possibly in exchange for cash and Windows NT promotion. If the deal goes though it would make AT&T's WorldNet the second largest ISP, second only to AOL, and allow Microsoft to dump some yet-to-be-profitable projects. " Apparently, the deal is not going through. Funny thing-AT&T considers the talks to be done, while MS considers the talks to be "on-going".
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AT&T possibly to purchase MSN-No Deal More

AT&T possibly to purchase MSN-No Deal

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  • GTE owns the Canada side already (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I hear it from a little birdie that works for msn, and they already sold the msn in canada to at&t! Just my 2 cents!

  • Results from ms fud. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I mentioned a few months ago that I saw a poll that showed 80% of all americans favoring Bill Gates and I forgot the name of the source. Well here is another poll. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2184 293,00.html AND NO THIS IS NOT BY ZDNET!
  • Depends on how you define standard, I suppose. To my mind the opposite of "proprietary" is "standard". Since MS is proprietary, they can't be standard.
    Anybody have a dictionary handy?
  • They've realized that 'net access has become a commodity. Microsoft doesn't want to be in the commodity business (that's why they create non-standard OS's).


    MS knows that they have no experience competing on price and service, so the ISP business isn't for them.
  • M$ Lackey: "AT&T doesn't want to buy MSN."
    Cap'n Bill: "They're buying it."
    Lackey: "Uh.. they said they don't want it."
    Bill: "And I said they're buying it. Now go reboot the 500 box NT cluster, I want to play solitaire."

  • Fascinating that this happens just when MS is dumping more money into ads that say:

    "The people who have made your PC fast and reliable with Windows now do the same for your Internet access."

    #include <1984.h>
    #include <minitruth.h>
    #include <doublespeak.h>

    while (perception == bad) {
    fix_definition("fast");
    fix_definition("reliable");
    fix_history("Windows", "fast", "reliable");
    assert_history("Windows");
    }

    PS. Wish we could use PRE tags... :(

  • As much as I hate to say it, any OS that runs on 90%+ of the desktop computers in the world cannot be considered "non-standard". Propriatary, perhaps, but it is also a standard.

    I keep hearing this statistic about how Windows runs on 90+% of desktop computers.

    For some reason, I find it very difficult to find any numbers indicating what percetage of world computers are classified as desktop computers... I dunno, maybe I'm wrong to think that maybe MicroSoft's stuff runs on a minority of the world's computers, but I can't find anything to confirm nor deny.

  • Ironic (Score:1)

    by Nexus7 ( 2919 )
    AT&T using and promoting NT. AT&T, where Unix was written first. Now that'd be ironic. Really ironic, not Alanis-ironic.
  • they're the only ones that have them on the 64bit platform. they are the only ones that make nt somewhat reliable and somewhat scalable (okay ibm too). and they have good hooks to unix.
  • people were writing in with their suspicions that this poll was biased towards Microsoft. Sorry no links, but it was Macintouch or MacOSRumors that covered it (forget which one, maybe both).

    It's always a clue a poll is tainted when you're asked to rate something 1 to 5, where for one question 1 means "very much" then the next minute 1 means "very little".. :-D
  • The only way MSN is ever going to increase membership is if they give the service away FREE. I'll bet Microsoft would be toying with the idea if it weren't for the antitrust trial. Wouldn't want to let the rest of the industry believe it's OK to think for yourself; Netscpe MUST be crushed for trying.. :-/

    Of course, AOL is a much bigger fish. I'm waiting to see when Microsoft buys an actual vendor like Micron...
  • microsoft isn't doing well with msn. aol now has a possible avenue to the desktop (netscape + sun|linux + corel|applix partnership) and a successful cash flow to fund it (isp business). at&t is a huge communication company that could hammer isp sompetition if they had a larger customer base. microsoft now wants to sell msn to at&t *and* get some free promotion. if it goes through, aol and at&t can beat each other up and microsoft ends up with one or two softer semi-competitors - one of which will be quite grateful.

    pretty damn smart actually. if the people who wrote code at microsoft were half as smart as the marketting/business folks nt would have multi-year uptimes...
  • FreeBSD rules!

    But I'm using Linux just to be with the crowd :)

  • Ever notice that it's Microsoft that is alwasy doing the buying and selling? I mean, none of the headlines say "AT&T buys MSN" it's "Microsoft sells MSN to AT&T" And, AT&T is only getting coustomers, most of which will probably jump ship when the deal takes place(remember CiS being bought by AOL?) while M$ is getting another media giant to puch M$ standards. That's a good deal who's only price was a service that wasn't profitable anyways.

    Why is it that everytime something bad happens on AOL(child porn, stalking, etc.) it's refered to as "the internet"? I mean, how many stories have you read about children being lured out of their homes by 40+ year old men that blantenly happened on AOL and not one mention of AOL in the actually story, and then an editorial about how evil "the internet" is? But when it's something good(the "You've Got Mail" movie, etc.) AOL's name is all over it?

    And Clinton...well....that's enough said right there.

  • Customers purchasing *products*, not ISP services. On a closed system like AOL, one can understand how AOL can get a cut of purchases within their closed system. But on a publicly accessible system like MSN, it unlikely that MSN subscribers patronize MSN sites at any higher rate than non-MSN subscribers. Especially since the default config of MSIE dumps you into MSN through the home page and channel bar, no matter who your ISP is.

    Back to the original point - buying MSN is like buying Netcom, minus the equipment and network.

  • I thought pretty much all of MSN's services are now availible to every web user, and MSN itself was now a standard PPP dial-in ISP. (No more funky client.) Furthermore, they've got no 'network' of their own, but lease bandwidth on UUnet.

    If so, ATT is really not buying a online service, but just buying customers. Who cares.
  • I liked AOL or MSN as a whole, just that one aspect...the rest of it can drop off the planet =P
  • I never thought I would be saying this. But AOL and MSN are good for one reason IMHO. They keep the newbies in one arena for the most part.

    The ads say, "I'ts fast and easy". Well it is. Log on and everything is spoon-fed to you. And with all the marketing crammed down everyone's throat, people who are not computer enthusiasts, who just wanna surf and email, AOL and MSN are perfect.

    My mother has used MSN for three years or so. She has always been happy with it. She isn't a computer power user or anything. SHe surfs a little and does email. Blam, simple and easy.

    I could sit here and ramble for days why i hate MSN and AOL. But I challneged myself to find something positive. This is what I came up with. And I do feel better about it becuase AOL and MSN won't go away anytime soon. And quite frankly all this bitching gets on your nerves after awhile.

    So look at it as a place for newbies to stay and gather and leave well alone. Let them hang out in the safe walls of MSN and AOL. SUre, some of them creep out and explore the real Internet world, but soon they go back to thier playpen.

    All this post is for is just to make someone laugh or make them "Think Different" about something.
    If not, flame me all you want, I could care less.
  • may have been a bit off the subject.

    Call it a vent triggered by the mere mention of MSN and AOL...heh, brainfart mayhap.

    Frankly, I'm not suprised at any deal/merger/buyout anymore.
  • Sure. Microsoft's days are numbered. But the number is probably higher than you can count.

    All empires must fall. But now is not the time for Microsoft.

    Linux is fantastic, no doubt. But have you noticed that Microsoft makes dozens of fantastic products, that appeal to millions of people, and they are releasing more each day?

    Probably not, because the applications and OS don't appeal to you personally.

    Have you considered that other people may actually like their products?

    No. Microsoft will be around for a long time...

  • So, if the deal goes through, AT&T has to use NT as its "OS of choice"? It would be amusing to see NT try and run a telephone switch.

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