Mailing List Archive

Wall Street & Internet (was Re: ISP consolidation)
On Wed, 10 Apr 1996, Robert Bowman wrote:

> >
---- other forwarded messages deleted ---
>
> As long as Wall Street likes the Internet, the industry will continue to
> grow by leaps and bounds. When they decide it is no longer trendy/profitable
> then we'll notice most of the garage ISPs will disappear.
>
...
>

Conventinal investment wisdom is you sink in the big $s, gain market share,
sit tight and let the cash cow bring in profits...sometimes for a decade
or more... and in some rare cases this was true for data communications
as well.

In the case of Internet however, you invest, build the network, you try for
market share, you UPGRADE (i.e. invest more), you try for more market
share, you UPGRADE again, etc.

T-1 to DS-3 to OC-3 and beyond... Bigger, Better, Faster...

The two to three year investment cycle seems inevitable.. One can only
wonder as to how long it will remain palatable to investors.

-Mulugu

=========================================================

Mulugu Srinivasarao Tel : 703/904-2013
SprintLink Engineering Fax : 703/904-2292
Sprint, GSD Bldg.