The Frantic Reign of Netscape
By Dale Dougherty
In the <blink> of an eye, Netscape has come and
gone. Four years after the first beta release of its browser, Netscape ends
its reign as the supreme ruler of the Internet empire. A courtroom fight with
Microsoft and a $4.2 billion merger with America Online signal a stunning
end to the Browser Wars. While Microsoft may be declared the victor, the price
of victory is certainly steep if it causes the government to decide that Microsoft
is out of control. That decision will no doubt end the History of the Internet,
Part I.
Just as histories are written by the victors, business books are stories
told by and about those who succeed. Look at these recent titles: Barbarians
Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside; aol.com: How Steve Case Beat
Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web;
Speeding the Net: The Inside Story of Netscape and How It Challenged Microsoft.
CEOs are the modern-day conquerors who amass power and prestige in the marketplace.
In any period of history, we can find similar stories of people who rise
to power. Usually these power struggles are accompanied by bloodshed. I happen
to be reading about Byzantium in a book of that title by John Julius Norwich.
In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine founded this new center of the
Roman Empire. The rise of Byzantium in the East comes about as Rome falls
in the West.
