Competing on Internet Time: Lessons From Netscape & Its Battle with Microsoft - Hardcover

Yoffie, David; Cusumano, Michael A.; Yoffie, David B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684853191 ISBN 13: 9780684853192

Publisher: Free Press, 1998

Synopsis

Details the Internet software company's product development and marketing strategies

About this title

Review

No other business rivalry has captured the public imagination quite like the one between Netscape and Microsoft. And for good reason. It pits the world's richest corporation against a relatively recent startup. The implications of this battle--for everything from electronic commerce to network communications--extend well into the next millennium. Competing on Internet Time, by Michael A. Cusumano and David B. Yoffie, is the definitive blow-by-blow analysis of Netscape's battle with Microsoft, starting with the founding of Netscape in 1994 through the summer of 1998, just as Microsoft was about to enter the courtroom with the Justice department over its alleged monopolistic practices.

Based on a series of interviews with Netscape employees and others, Competing on Internet Time is more than a breathless corporate biography. Rather, the authors draw lessons from the mistakes and victories that both Netscape and Microsoft have suffered and enjoyed in their war for 'Net turf--in terms of browsers, server software, and portal space. The authors come up with some surprising conclusions. For example, in examining the competitive strategies of both companies, Cusumano and Yoffie conclude that Microsoft, more than Netscape, exhibited what they call a "judo flexibility." Here they point to Microsoft's now famous December 7, 1995 Internet Day announcement of the company's embrace-and-extend strategy and its subsequent sacrifice of MSN in a deal with AOL--prime examples of how Microsoft redefined the battle in a way that avoided a direct confrontation with Netscape but nevertheless placed them center stage in the fight for Internet mindshare. The authors also go into fascinating detail about how each company operates--from the hiring of staffers to the conception, development, and marketing of products.

But this book is more than just about the conflict between Netscape and Microsoft. Anyone interested in how network-based businesses grow and change will find Competing on Internet Time a glimpse into the not-too-distant network economy. It belongs on the bookshelf of every Internet junkie and entrepreneur. --Harry C. Edwards

About the Author

Michael A. Cusumano, co-author of MICROSOFT SECRETS and THINKING BEYOND LEAN is Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT's Sloan School of Management. David B. Yoffie is the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0684853191
• ISBN 13: 9780684853192
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 361