Re: <nettime> AOL loves TIMEWARNER (4x)

["nettime's_digestive_system" <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>]

1..................... From: Roy Pardi <rpardi@rcn.com>
2..................... From: "K.Patelis" <cop02kp@gold.ac.uk>
3..................... From: benjamin weil <beweil@otherweb.com>
4..................... From: nettime's_roving_reporter
<nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>



Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 20:09:05 -0500
To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
From: Roy Pardi <rpardi@rcn.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> AOL loves TIMEWARNER

At 8:08 PM +0000 1/10/00, K.Patelis wrote:
>AOL and Time Warner
>
>
>You have all probably heard the alarming news, THEY are merging. I find
>this news so depressing, it is as if all my political economy nightmares
>are coming true and the worst part is that all I can do is write and talk
>some more about them. I am writing this letter as a call, a call to
>anybody that is furious and depressed about this merger to propose some
>kind of collective statement that condemns it. Warnings of conglomarate


there is some tepid discussion of this in the mainstream press:

http://www.digitalmass.com/news/daily/0111/orwell.html


Roy Pardi

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Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 11:33:27 -0500 (EST)
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 23:18:19 +0000 (GMT)
From: "K.Patelis" <cop02kp@gold.ac.uk>
To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
Subject: ANTI-MERGER STATEMENT ( APOLOGISE FOR ridiculous heading)

Dear Nettimers,

Following very positive response to my posting yesterday I am in the midst
of compiling a very short statement of protest against the merger. If any
of you have any comments on my first draft I would be obliged to hear them.
Furthermore any of you that would be willing to sign a document of this
kind should contact me. If you already know of an organisation issuing a
statement please post this to them as well . (THE DOCUMENT STILL NEEDS WORK)

Thank you

AOL TIME WARNER MEANS MARKET CENSORSHIP

The 300 billion worth merger of AOL and TIME WARNER is unprecedented in the
history of media and communication. The companies merging operate in
different stages of production of communication markets which opens up huge
opportunities of economies of scope. AOL TIME WARNER will have control of
magazines, news outlets, music film, internet properties, cable operators.
QUESTION DO I LIST THE JOINT ASSESTS HERE OR DOES THAT DETER THE READER?
THE JOINT ACQUISITIONS ARE 1 PAGE.

The full affects of the power of AOL TIME WARNER can be understood if one
tries to conceive of a ban of their products. For many consumers worldwide
it would be almost impossible to perceive of consuming news and info
without consuming an AOL TIME WARNER product.

The merger will severely harm the functioning of communications markets
threatening democracy world wide. The media, free exchange of ideas and
information are essential to the well functioning of democracy and public
life. This essentially distinguishes media products form other products.
The difference is essential. This fundamental fact set aside one has to
also accept that even if one endorses free market principles media products
are different in nature from others because free information is a
prerequisite of free market capitalism which means that information is
essential to the good functioning of the market. Without free exchange of
information there can be no free exchange of products. Consequently
whatever one's political opinions one has to accept that media markets by
definition differ from other markets. The entire media industry in Europe
was build around this assumption and it survived (in part) New Right
governments, this is not accidental.

 Media market's around the world are failing, this is an uncontested fact
that has been pointed out by scholars around the world for at least a
decade. This merger comes to certify radical anxiety directly affecting a
medium that stood as a jewel for flux freedom and competition. Media market
failures such as concentration due to economies of scope and scale, high
barriers to entry do not merely produce an ill market who's problems
regulators have to address. The consequence of market failure in media
markets is far more painfully ideological they any of us would like to
admit: they produce market censorship. To put it bluntly for every corner
store that is put out of business by a giant supermarket a voice is not
heard. For every corner store that never goes to bussiness due to lack of
demand an innovative opinion is lost. With every voice that is censored by
free-market mechanisms our democracies become poorer and poorer. The merger
of AOL and TIME WARNER will lead to the acceleration of existing market
censorship. This coming at a time when the Internet market for
communication is in its early stages and can lead to monophony. This
monophony ( one voice) serving a public function will be in private hands,
this means that questions of accountability will not even be legitimate to
raise once the merger has gone through.


Korinna Patelis
Department of Media and Communications
Goldsmiths College-London-SE14 6NW
DIRECT LINE 0171-9197243


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Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 18:04:17 +0000
To: "K.Patelis" <cop02kp@gold.ac.uk>
From: benjamin weil <beweil@otherweb.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> AOL loves TIMEWARNER
Cc: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net

Korinna:

do you really think this is going to change much?  I mean, the current
state of things is the same, whether or not the merger is official on
paper:  AOL has always been licensing "content" from other companies, as
they know they do not have the internal resource to match the quality (sic)
of other "content providers".

Deals of the kind are made everyday, although they do not appear
officially, because they do not need to (= no change in he capital
structure): the fact is, they have not waited the official "wedding" type
of transaction to exist.  The only difference today is that now, the whole
internet industry is faced with a need to justify the outrageous stock
market prices it commands: to be crude, the idea is to make sure there is
not a huge stock market crash initiated by the sudden fall of the internet
values due to lack of confidence.

There was an interesting piece in the economist (i believe that was the
magazine) a few weeks ago, about how the stock market would suffer if any
leading internet "value" was suddenly posting a profit.  There would indeed
be, according to the article, a sudden reality check that would re-anchor a
virtual economy based on fantasy and speculation (the state of virtual
capitalism we live in) into the reality of value (GOC - Good Old
Capitalism).  In other words, the value assessment for those companies such
as Amazon and the like is not based on traditional evaluation schemes:  why
would it otherwise be that the interne stock leaders be worth so much more
than the banks, or oil companies, or whatever is easily valued with the
"old" industrial rating scheme.  This is how "perverse" the system has
gone!  and this is why these internet value have and will have to team up
with GOC values...

in a way, although it may sound weird, i was more shocked by the announced
joint venture between e-bay and sotheby's - even if it is a much smaller
deal, and does not affect people in the same way.  For the same reason,
that it completely changes the way one perceives the net.  However, I still
believe there is space for other things, experiments, cultural production
that stands out:  portal culture is too limited to please the expectations
of people who have gradually learnt how to navigate the maze of information
with their own appreciation of things.  It is too homogeineous:  how many
"my.pages" can one go through without realizing it is the same layout, the
same content, the same "customazable features", the same ad agency
(doubleclick), etc.

But in this new state of capitalism, and looking at it from this point of
view, integration is unavoidable, if you do not want to see the complete
collapse of the virtual capitalist state in which we live today.  this is
not to abide by the rules, but i do not believe it intrinsically changes
the cultural state in which we have to operate. maybe it somehow has the
merits of clarity! (maybe i am being overtly cynical, here, though)

So, I'd say, no reason to be more concerned about the state of things than
2 days ago, when we did not know anything about this... it is just a
reminder that we have to be even more acutely aware of the need to create
alternative experiences online.

Benjamin Weil
52 perronet house, london se1 6js
mobile: [+44/0] 795 713-8879
jfax: [+1] 212 504-8370


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From: nettime's_roving_reporter <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
Date: today

WILL AT&T BE NEXT PARTNER--OR RIVAL?
Issue: Merger
After the merger announcement America Online Chief Executive Steve Case and
Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald M. Levin called C. Michael Armstrong,
their counterpart at AT&T "to reiterate their interest in working closely
with AT&T." It is not known whether the call was out of courtesy or a sign
of a possible relationship. The difference could say a lot about the future
of the Internet, the television world and the telephone business. Some
analysts said AT&T and the new AOL Time Warner are not rivals but
prospective joint-venture partners. The mission of both are to provide the
spectrum of communications and entertainment services -- video-on-demand,
the Internet, local and long-distance telephone connections.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), SOURCE: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-01/12/161l-011200-idx.html)

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