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kleinbl00 · 4165 days ago · link · · parent · post: Chat Wars: Inside the late ’90s chat wars between Microsoft and AOL, from the perspective of a former Microsoft programmer
Worth noting: - Microsoft thought it was A-OK to push daily updates to its software because an iterative, reactive patch strategy beat paying AOL a license fee - AOL thought it was A-OK to exploit their own shitty software's shittyness rather than bring some resources to bear that weren't shitty. AOL market cap at the time: $222 billion M$ market cap at the time: $400 billion That's Google and Apple's market cap right fucking now. M$ was at an equivalent of $550 billion fucking dollars and this was their approach. AOL was so fucking rich they bought Time Warner the next year. And what did they do? Fuck with their users over nickels.