AMO Clears up Merger Mania Confusion
  9/15/00 05:49:00am Albuquerque, Nm
  Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

Merger Mania is indeed abound, but so is confusion of who owns who. Several years back I first wrote on Merger Mania, in a column named of course, MERGER MANIA! Today, I try to clear up this confusion with some of the major pending mergers and acquisitions, and some that are indeed completed.

  With the internet, Merger Mania became evident as new economies emerged, and old economies advanced. Some of the most noteworthy mergers were phone companies with cable companies, software companies with phone companies, and even the somewhat recent AOL purchase of Netscape. Lets start there.

  AOL Purchased a pounded Netscape back in late 1998 for a stock purchase of $4.2 Billion, much more than the actual Stock Market price at the time. I've written about this Netscape merger before, check IEvsNS. Within days Netscapes' worth doubled to around $9 Billion. With this purchase by AOL of Netscape, AOL made a partnership with Sun Microsystems, a long time supporter of Netscape. This parnership with SUN, is NOT the purchase of Netscape and therefore SUN, but the purchase of Netscape (not even owned by SUN) and a PARTNERSHIP with SUN. HUGE DIFFERENCE. Although this confusion of AOL purchasing SUN in part is due to the Netscape Merger/Acquisition and the following partnership with SUN, it in no way excuses the confusion that AOL owns SUN Microsystems. So that's clear, lets move on.

  America Online has merged and accquired several companies since Netscape, but Netscape by far was the biggest profit, though you should again read my article on IEvsNS and get an idea of just what they're going to do with Netscape. Other companies AOL has accquired are Israel based Mirabilis(makers of ICQ) for $400M, USA based NullSoft(makers of WinAmp) for $400M, and the most recent USA based SpeechWorks for $100M. Back to AOL and SUN's Partnership...


  AOL is working with Hughes Electronics (a huge, huge company), called an "ALLIANCE". To clear this term up, an ALLIANCE is a joint venture, where companies work together to achieve a common goal beneficial to both companies. This does not imply ownership either. Yes money, possibly stock changes hands, but in which point a company owns the majority stock, this is called an acquisition and is basically ownership when you obsorb 100% of the company. So Hughes (DirectTV Brand) and AOL are working together on the AOLtv project. AOLtv was recently released and has had a luke-warm welcome, but AOL and Hughes have bigger plans, namely Satellite BroadBand (like DirectPC). So lets be clear, AOL doesn't own Hughes either. Lets move past the AOL confusion.

  Other Mergers include AT&T & IBM. This one is a little different where many think, AT&T, IBM owns that Global Network? Yes they do. IBM Purchased the AT&T Global Network for $5.2Billion.

  Ladies and gentlemen, we could go on and on for days. Just remember, a Merger isn't a partnership isn't an alliance isn't a well you get the idea.