ner deal forces the hands of those other networks. Fox, CBS, NBC and Disney have to make their Net creations work, and fast. Sure they've all taken baby steps, but the AOL Time Warner deal will make them sprint. "They all have made Web moves, but no one has knocked the cover off the ball," said Gami.Even though they are at odds with each other over cable subscribers and competing services, AT&T and Microsoft did a huge favor for AOL/Time Warner when they sold to Time Warner their stakes in the Road Runner Cable modem service that has exclusive marketing rights in the Time Warner Cable systems until the end of 2001. This enabled Time Warner, which controlled only 40% of Road Runner to end the exclusivity immediately. This was also stopping AOL from having any dealings with Road Runner. Of course AT&T did not do this out of the goodness of their heart, they needed to get rid of their stake in Road Runner in order to get government approval for their acquisition of Media One cable. AT&T has been trying to get rid of their 25% stake in Road Runner for months but have been unable to come up with an agreement on the price. There are a lot of companies involved in the Road Runner deal that are trying to maneuver in or out of the deal. Microsoft and Compaq computer each invested $212.5 million a piece for a 10% stake in the company. So even though there are major rivalries here they seen to be willing to make some concessions to each other in order to be in a better position and also they dont want to be seen as a spoiled sport, drawing attention from the FTC as someone who is blocking the open access to the cable systems that is all the rage.There is no love loss between AOL and Microsoft which have been building alliances to compete with each other, AOL with Time Warner and Compaq Computer, and Microsoft with AT&T, and Gateway Computers. Microsoft has been trying to gain a foothold into the Content service that AOL has dominated for a de...
