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Juno, NetZero To Merge Into 2nd-Largest ISP
elliotc writes: "As free Internet access comes to an end, the last remaining players, Juno and NetZero, are uniting (no pun intended) to form United Online. The combined company hopes to stay alive in the face of AOL, MSN, and Earthlink and to further marginalize smaller companies."
is how these two can manage to stay in business in the face of massive advertising from giants AT&T and AOL. AT&T has service for $4.95/month, which *almost* anyone can afford. AOL is still pumping out free disks at an incredible rate, and I know from personal experience that their customer retention tactics are as inexorable as those of Scientologists. I didn't realize NetZero was still in business until just a couple of weeks ago I found out a friend of mine is using their service. I suppose they have a niche for the really poor or the really frugal, but what is the point of paying them to run your ads, in the face of such a relatively small subscriber base?
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
You only merge for one reason: Economies of scale.
Both players are leveraging the dialup pops of backbone providers like Cable and Wireless, MegaPOP, and whats left of Ziplink. Combined they can possibly pay less for their access -- you didn't actually think they deployed their own network gear did you?
So merger time means they are both sucking-wind fast and maybe together they honestly think they can "best-fit" their way to profitability.
We had a customer switch over recently from one of them, and when we gave them the number for their area, they said, "Wow, thats the number I used to dial for Juno -- why are you going to be any better?" -- our tech replied, "well, you'll talking to a live person aren't you?" -- oh yeah, and we don't use your computer to search for aliens without your permission, nor do we zap you with advertising or sell you out to other companies.
There are three basic rules (okay, maybe four)
1. You get what you pay for.
2. What comes around goes around.
3. There's no such thing as a free lunch
4. A movie at matinee prices is the *SAME* movie you'll see at regular evening rates.
The advertiser "eyeball" model is dead, and banner advertising (and filtering for that matter) is about to kill whats left of that "revenue stream".
Besides....do you REALLY want to advertise your products and services to people that don't even pay for their internet service?
I agree with an earlier post.....ONE bankruptcy, not two will make things so much easier....
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.
Yes, so six months from now they can have one bankruptcy case instead of two. Think of how much the taxpayers will save.
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"