Jan 10 Mon (06 PM)

It seems like it's about time one of the net companies actually tried to use it's over-valued stock to purchase something that makes more that just computer bits.

I'm still impressed and horrified at the size of the deal.

<http://www.wired.com/news_drop/palmpilot/story/0,1325,33535,00.html>

However, my local, Portland, Oregon take on this is: What happens to me? PDX is the thorn in AT&T's butt. We've said that as a public monopoly, they have to give open access to ISPs other than their own @Home service. The city, county and regional governments all agreed on this and stopped AT&T from having the final piece of the TCI/AT&T merger go through. So AT&T sued the city, saying that puny little Portland could not stand in the way of the multi-national communication corporation.

AT&T lost. But they appealled, and now it's up to higher courts.

However, Portland doesn't have the budget to pay for a protracted court battle with Ma Bell. So they got some help from a little company called AOL.

Now that AOL is part of a big cable owning company <http://www.pathfinder.com/corp/about/pubarchive/websites.html#cablesys> what will their response be? Will they leave Portland in the lurch? Will they hold true to the selfish capitalistic view they held before or will they switch to a new selfish capitalistic view.

Then again, does it really matter?

Ross : Link : Discussion Board