1999– America Online(AOL) completes the acquisition of Netscape Communications Corporation. The acquisition started in Nov. 24, 1998. The acquisition was a $10 million arrangement in stock and cash.Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark were the founders of Netscape. The Netscape browser would be discontinued in December 2007, and ultimately end support on March 1, 2008.
1986– It’s full name is Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik (Centre of Office and Information technology). CeBit actually was started in the 70’s with the Hanover fair. However, the two separated in 1986 when it was decided that together, the two were not doing too well. Since then, CeBit has grown to be a very important conference for all IT.CeBit expanded in 1999, and the sponsor brought the show to Asia, Australia, Turkey, and the US. CeBit runs 5 days in Hanover, Germany.
1988 – Spectrum Holobyte releases the puzzle game Tetris for the Commodore 64 and IBM PC. This was the first game imported from the Soviet Union. The game was written by Alexi Paszitnov and Vagim Gerasimov at the Computer Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow. The Commodore 64 version would cost you $24.95, and the IBM version cost $34.95.
1984 – Apple created the opportunity of a lifetime with the Macintosh. It was the first mouse-driven computer and Graphical User Interface (GUI) machine. The machine would have a release date of Jan 24, and held a 8 MHz Motorola 68000 microprocessor. It had 128 KB DRAM and came with a 9″ black-and-white CRT with resolution of 512×342. The price of the machine was $2495But what was key to this computer launch was the ad. This ad ran Nationally only once – If you missed the Superbowl, you would have missed the Ad – that is, unless you watched the news the next day. The ad appeared in the 3rd Quarter of the game.
By the way: Superbowl XVIII pitted the LA Raiders vs. the Washington Redskins. Raiders won 38-9. The average cost for ad space: $368,000. Apple’s budget on the commercial – $900,000. Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) directed it. The Board of Directors did not like the Spot, but Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak did. Woz even stated that if the board was to reject the commercial, he would pay for the spot out of his own pocket.
2000 – Kevin Mitnick, who was imprisoned for 5 Years in hacking IBM, Motorola and DEC; then a big chase with the FBI, was released from prision. He was still ordered to not log onto a computer.2003 – Kevin Mitnick finally logs back onto the Internet after the 3 year probation. He fought the prohibition from the Internet and got it reduced to 3 years. No word as to where he went on his first login.
This is an interesting parallelism:1990 – Time Inc. acquires Warner Communications for $14.1 Billion.
2000 – AOL purchases Time Warner for $165 Billion in stock. The merger would finally complete on Jan 11 2001 when the Federal Trade Commission approves the merger.
AOL and Time Warner continue a relationship until 2009 when the two companies finally split.