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Article: Rivals Sending Message to Feds About AOL Software.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Los Angeles Business Journal
- Article date:
- June 19, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 CBJ, L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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As Microsoft contests its court-ordered breakup, another high-tech giant might be preparing to follow in its footsteps.
America Online lacks monopoly power in its principal business as an Internet service provider. Although the company's 25 million subscribers make it the world's largest ISP, most of the Net's 300 million users log on through some other company.
But AOL does control more than 90 percent of the market for instant-messaging software. And while this monopoly might not seem like a big deal, it could gum up a much bigger deal: AOL's pending purchase of Time Warner.
Instant-messaging software allows Net users to chat with each other ...