AOL Pulls The Plug On Netscape; Developments, Updates Cease Starting February

New York, NY (AHN) - America Online (AOL) will be pulling the plug on Netscape Navigator starting Feb. 1; 13 years after the launch of the world's first commercial Web browser. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL decided to halt future development and technical support for Netscape and concentrate on the company's other revenue-generating operations.

Netscape users have dropped with the introduction of Internet Explorer by Microsoft Corporation and later, Firefox, an open-source browser. Microsoft quickly won market share when it gave away its Internet Explorer browser for free with its flagship Windows operating system. The bundling resulted in an antitrust lawsuit, which later ended with a multi-million settlement with Microsoft.

Netscape Director Tom Drapeau said Friday efforts to regain market share have proved futile.

"While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," said Drapeau, in a blog entry.

In 1998, AOL, the largest Internet access service, acquired Netscape Communications for $4.2 billion.

AOL then envisioned that Netscape's brand, portal, and people will help turn the promise of electronic commerce into reality.

Netscape was so popular that it even listed publicly in August 1995, and registered a $2 billion market value even though it had only $20 million in sales.

Drapeau said AOL will no longer release security and other updates for Netscape beginning February although the browser may still used and downloaded indefinitely.

He advised Netscape users to instead download Firefox.