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AOL.com
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Author: Kara Swisher
List Price: $14.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0812931912
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (29 June, 1999)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 26,861
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 4 out of 5
AMAZING THE AOL IS STILL HERE!
Very fascinating and detailed look at the early and middle years of AOL (before the latest difficulties with TimeWarner merger). We see just how amazingly close we came to not having an AOL at all. Steve Case and his partners and co-horts came so close so many times to going belly up, yet the book also shows how others failed to capitalize on AOL's weaknesses and failed to understand its strengths. It's a good read for anyone, but if you're an AOL user, it'll give you a true insight into this important company. It's an easy, fast read, too, which you might not expect. The latest issue was updated once, through 1999. I'd love to see it updated again in a few months, to cover all the Time Warner stuff and many reorganizations that have gone on just lately.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Part one of the history of America Online (AOL.com)
Kara Swisher has covered AOL and the Internet for the business section of The Washington Post since 1994. Now reporting on Silicon Valley for The Wall Street Journal, she lives in San Francisco. This updated version, published in 1999, included an new epilogue by the author.The book starts with the now legendary meeting between the world-richest man Bill Gates (founder and chairman of Microsoft) and Steve Case (now chairman of AOL) in May 1993. In this meeting, Gates makes the following proposal to Case: "I can buy 20 percent of you or I can buy all of you, or I can go into this business myself and bury you." In hindsight, we now know that Gates did not buy America Online and did not bury them either. With this conversation in the background Swisher discusses the roots, the lack of business plan, the strategy changes (through which AOl got the nickname cockroach: "... a bug you couldn't kill no matter how hard you tried."), the people involved, the battles with Microsoft, Prodigy and CompuServe, the financial problems, the legal problems, the acquisitions of Netscape and various other companies, and Steve Case's vision (the three C's - "communication, community, clarity"). Most of the information comes from inside the company itself, where Swisher has interviewed the numerous people involved, but as a Washington Post-journalist there is plenty of external information. Although this excellent book is about one of the best-known brands in cyberspace, it is perfectly readable for non-Internet geeks (like me). Yes, yes, I know, there are plenty of names and Internet terms around, but that doesn't even make this a bad and difficult read. I see this book as the first part in the history of America Online (AOL), from pre-startup through to late-1998. But plenty has happened since 1998 and I do expect the author to write another book on those events?!?
Rating: 5 out of 5
To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Karen Swisher weaves a compelling tale of America Online, a company saga that is remarkable in the annals of American business history. She recounts at the outset of this tale how Steve Case paid proper tribute to Bill Von Meister, the founder and visionary techie responsible for AOL becomming a commercial possibility.Von Meister (VM) attracted some of the finest venture capitalists in the nation to his vision of sending video games into individual homes for a fee. While this dream did not pan out as commercially viable Von meister revealed a keen grasp of the future of the internet as long ago as the late seventies. Steve Case was not only intellectually curious when he met Von Meister, but immediately grasped the significance of his vision. Because VM was lax with his corporate spending habits while ignoring the rivers of red ink produced by a product without a market, Frank Caufield of Kleiner Perkins brought in his friend and investor in CVC, Jim Kimsey, to be his eyes and ears at the company. As CVC tanked Quantum ne Aol was begun and Kimsey fought off the creditors while Case ran the business. As the company struggled thru the 80's Kimsey provided adult leadership while searching and finding enough capital to sustain AOL thru its bleakest times. As the microchip revolution caused a faster and more powerful computer base to grow up and around the company, Aol surpassed its resident competitors, Prodigy and Compuserve, as Case's clever marketing ideas continued to build a virtual community online. When alex Brown took Aol public in 1992 the stock actually drifted below its IPO price for a couple of months before beginning its remarkable accent. Kimsey, who was older than Case and who had suffered more from opportunity cost than his younger counterpart, was in favor of selling out to Bill Gates in 1993. This didn't fly well with Case who eased Kimsey out in 1995, but what a way to go. Kimsey amassed one of the more significant fortunes in Washington DC business history and he did it largely by having the sense to know "which horse to ride", one Steve case. Case went on to perform one of the more remarkable records of business timing any of us will ever witness. This series of correct moves included adding the right executives to the mix, the ones who could lead Aol "thru the iceburgs", and culminated in his buyout of Time Warner. The timing could not have been more deft. This is a fascinating book about the best America has to offer. All aspiring businessmen should read it.
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