Chapter 19 Summary
A Surprising Wreck
This chapter focuses on the failed AOL – Time Warner merger, the first experimental fusion of Internet and conglomerate. As the first experiment of its kind, company leaders needed to carefully survey any major problems that could arise. Unfortunately, these actions weren't taken and the merger fell subject to issues originated by the Internet’s creators. The potential for detrimental effects caused by the principle of net neutrality went overlooked. Net neutrality serves to block internet service providers from guiding users toward their desired websites. As an internet service provider, AOL had an desired to make an internet environment where everything you needed was in one place, a “walled garden” in which one never needed to leave. However, with broadband expansion their Utopian “walled garden” was turning into walled ruins. Tim Wu addresses AOL CEO Steve Chase's predicament that AOL's business model cannot last, "AOL had managed, for the most part to keep the secret in the family but Case and his colleagues were desperately aware there was no logical place for AOL in the age of broadband, an age that was fast approaching"(262). In AOL's final moments, they attempted to find a way to keep up with, and challenge Broadband. Originally they thought to find someone with cash that could help them out, but in the end there was no way for them to keep up. Wu reiterates this point in stating: "There were structural problems that neither Chase nor Levin nor many others fully comprehended at the time" (Wu 265). People had the freedom to choose what kind of service, and they did not want to be limited to use a system both slow and expensive. Consumers have net neutrality to thank for their ability to search and surf with no limitation.
This chapter focuses on the failed AOL – Time Warner merger, the first experimental fusion of Internet and conglomerate. As the first experiment of its kind, company leaders needed to carefully survey any major problems that could arise. Unfortunately, these actions weren't taken and the merger fell subject to issues originated by the Internet’s creators. The potential for detrimental effects caused by the principle of net neutrality went overlooked. Net neutrality serves to block internet service providers from guiding users toward their desired websites. As an internet service provider, AOL had an desired to make an internet environment where everything you needed was in one place, a “walled garden” in which one never needed to leave. However, with broadband expansion their Utopian “walled garden” was turning into walled ruins. Tim Wu addresses AOL CEO Steve Chase's predicament that AOL's business model cannot last, "AOL had managed, for the most part to keep the secret in the family but Case and his colleagues were desperately aware there was no logical place for AOL in the age of broadband, an age that was fast approaching"(262). In AOL's final moments, they attempted to find a way to keep up with, and challenge Broadband. Originally they thought to find someone with cash that could help them out, but in the end there was no way for them to keep up. Wu reiterates this point in stating: "There were structural problems that neither Chase nor Levin nor many others fully comprehended at the time" (Wu 265). People had the freedom to choose what kind of service, and they did not want to be limited to use a system both slow and expensive. Consumers have net neutrality to thank for their ability to search and surf with no limitation.