Data network suffers biggest blackout ever; America Online failure affects 6 million users
Article Abstract:
America Online (AOL) went down all day on Aug 7, 1996 leaving many of its six million subscribers without communications services and depriving some of its content providers of revenue. The outage highlighted the importance of E-mail in modern commerce. While network downtime is typical in the on-line world, the scope of the AOL crash is an embarrassment, and some say the company brought the outage on itself by focusing on marketing and gaining subscribers instead of on the technical aspects of the system. The company says that AOL went off-line for a scheduled maintenance upgrade, but the new network routing software installed caused problems. The outage was most difficult for small business owners and home users with only a single on-line account. Some 15% to 20% of AOL subscribers have other on-line accounts, and most corporate users have Internet access through their office networks or Internet service providers. Most content providers have their own Web sites, but a few rely entirely on AOL.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1996
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Start-up offering iMac's to lure customers
Article Abstract:
Los Angeles, California-based Freemac.com is offering Apple iMac computers to customers who agree to sign up for their Visa card and three-years worth of Internet services. The start-up company is in partnership with pop artist Peter Max, the credit card-issuing arm of Bank One Corp., e-commerce company Cybercash and Internet service provider (ISP) Earthlink Network. Customers must qualify for the no-annual-fee credit card which has a 'competitive annual percentage rate,' and must sign up for the full three years of Internet services. In turn they receive an iMac computer with one-third of its hard-drive capacity filled with Freemac partners' promotional ads. Although it is assumed Apple will benefit from this marketing promotion, the company has stated that Freemac is not at all affiliated with Apple and is receiving no discounts or special terms for its promotion.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
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On-line grocer is setting up delivery system for $1 billion
Article Abstract:
Webvan Group Inc. has contracted with Bechtel for engineering and construction on 26 distribution centers around the U.S. Webvan, which began service June 2, 1999, currently has one center in Oakland, CA. It is likely the company will finance this expansion through junk bonds and perhaps partially an initial public offering. So far the Webvan has raised $100 million from venture capitalists. Presently, online grocery services claim $350 million, or 0.1 percent, of the $3.5 trillion US grocery items market in 1999. Some analysts expect this to grow to $3.5 billion by 2002.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
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