Re: BellSouth does it again... (fwd)

MegaZone (megazone@livingston.com)
Tue, 19 Nov 1996 16:06:10 -0800 (PST)

Once upon a time Jason Hatch shaped the electrons to say...
>On Tue, 19 Nov 1996, Jeff T. Carneal wrote:
>> internet + flat rate phone service was actually LOSING them money, yet
>> they continue to do it. Unless I'm mistaken, isn't it illegal to lose
>> money in order to beat your competition and drive them out of
>compete with netscape. Basically, it could only be said that it's only
>illegal if you get caught -- meaning it will continue to happen until ISPs

It isn't illegal.

It is quite legal to deliberately lose money to hurt your competition.
There is nothing that says a business MUST be profitable. If you have deep
pockets you can drop your prices below break even and soak up the loss if
it means your competition will go bankrupt first. Look at rate wars in
the airline industry.

I don't know about today, but for a long time Ford lost money on every
Escort that sold. They had to sell them to keep their corporate average
emissions level below federally mandated levels. They made up the difference
on big luxury cars that were over the emissions limit and that had a large
profit margin.

Was it fair to other small car makers that Ford could undercut their cost
by taking a loss? *shrug* That's life.

In the case of RBOC ISPs the only thing that might be illegal is if those
deep pockets violate antitrust.

-MZ

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