American Online (AOL) announced it will soon acquire Netscape Communications in a deal valued at over $4.2 billion. The stock-for-stock deal will give each Netscape stockholder 0.45 shares of AOL stock and should finalize in Spring of 1999, subject to regulatory approvals and Netscape shareholder's approval. This merger combines two of the largest online companies, AOL (NYSE:AOL) boasts over 14 million members and Netscape (Nasdaq:NCSP) with over 9 million Netcenter portal members \n "The acquisition of Netscape is a big step forward for America Online that will greatly accelerate our business momentum," said AOL chairman and CEO Steve Case. "With Netscape, we will broaden our global audience at home and at work, and add world-class technology to support an expanded range of America Online interactive products and services." \n Resting the fears of Netscape employees, AOL stated that Netscape's operations will remain based in Mountain View, CA. \n In a separate deal, AOL and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced a three-year marketing and development agreement. Under the agreement, Sun will help AOL distribute and develop e-commerce software. The two companies will use Sun's JAVA technology to provide next generation AOL services. \n AOL and Sun plan to continue the development of the Netscape Communicator 5.0 browser. They plan to add Version 1.2 of Sun's JAVA Developing Kit to Communicator 5.0. They also plan to embed a scaled-down version of JAVA, called PersonalJava into AOL clients. \n The AOL - Netscape merger will probably have bearing on the Microsoft Anti-trust suit, however experts state that it is too early to tell. Both sides will surely try to use the merger to their advantage.
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
