AT&T is in talks with @Home and the newly merged - and as yet unnamed - provider of Net access over cable made up of Time Warner's Road Runner and US West's MediaOne Express, The Wall Street Journal reported this morning. If the Road Runner group ties the knot with @Home - as the two entities are discussing - AT&T says it may want a piece of that action.
The telco giant is considering contributing its WorldNet Internet unit plus as much as US$1 billion, in exchange for shares in the new entity, according to the Journal, which cited unnamed "executives familiar with the talks," and further reporting that AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong has been personally involved in the planning.
These talks come on the heels of last month's announcement that AT&T would buy Teleport Communications Group, which was started by Tele-Communications Inc. and holds a controlling interest in @Home.
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Etrade wins with WebTV: Etrade shares jumped 15 percent on Monday after the online brokerage said WebTV Networks Inc. agreed to make its trading service a prominent part of the WebTV investment screen.
Etrade will be displayed on the "Investing and Brokerage" section of the start screen that pops up when a television connected to a WebTV set-top box is turned on. The announcement of the deal struck between the brokerage and WebTV - which Microsoft acquired last year - sent Etrade shares up $4.19 to $27.38 on Nasdaq.
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Microsoft bows out of Japanese venture: Softbank and Microsoft plan to dissolve their Tokyo-based computer game software joint venture, the Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today. The joint venture, 60 percent owned by Softbank and 40 percent by Microsoft, was formed in 1995 to develop and market game software for personal computers. The Gamebank Corp. has been struggling due to weak demand for personal computers, the daily said. Reuters contributed to this report
