RE: LA Times: AOL May Lose Key Netscape Asset: Talent

Keith Swenson (kswenson@ms2.com)
Fri, 26 Mar 1999 18:39:33 -0800


Greg,

Thanks for the note and reference. I provided much amusement here. It is
amazing that MS2 got a mention. We have 4 Netscapees ... not much when you
consider that more than 500 must have left this past year ... and the
planned layoff is for another 500.

Anyway, we are happy ... any press is good press for a starting company!

-Keith

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gregory Alan Bolcer [mailto:gbolcer@ics.uci.edu]
> Sent: Friday, March 26, 1999 08:58
> To: FoRK
> Cc: Kswenson@ms2.com; jfc@netscape.com; Tom Arkwright
> Subject: LA Times: AOL May Lose Key Netscape Asset: Talent
>
>
> May? The story states a couple of things. Sun is starting a new
> software venture with 1k of their employees. I wonder if that's
> just centered around the calendaring and LDAP servers or if this
> is something else. I quote:
>
> "Former Netscape employees, or 'Netscapees' as some call
> themselves, have started or play a significant role in at
> least a dozen new Bay Area and Silicon Valley companies,
> including Accept.com, Tellme.com, BlueMartini.com,
> Allbusiness.com, Geocast, and MS2."
>
> Keith? Have you been hording Netscape employees? 8-)
> Other mentions in the article, Atri Chatterjee went to
> Responsys.com, general counsel Roberta Katz and Mike McCue
> both wwent to Tellme.com, Rick Yamaura went to Persistence Software,
> and many are just waiting for their vesting to finish.
>
> The article says that as many as 1k Netscape employees will be
> placed in the Netscape Enterprise Group which will work with
> Sun to help
> companies build e-commerce systems with each side paying the
> salaries of their respective employees for 3 years. Heck, it'll
> take 3 years just to merge their business processes, if they even
> know what they are. Business culture clash, I love it.
>
> And if you think ethnic enmity in Kosovo is bad, the article states
> that there is still a lot of it running around after AOL signed an
> agreement with Netscape in March, 1996 only to sing an even
> more significant
> deal with Microsoft the next day. So their extra month's paycheck AOL
> gave them is nothing compared to the 15% market share and subsequent
> stock loss.
>
> So, anyone care to speculate how things are really going to work out?
> Anyone have any experience with golden handcuffs? Do tell.
>
> Greg
>