NETSCAPE IS "IN MERGER TALKS WITH AMERICA ONLINE"

PowerPC News (free by mailing add@aptdata.co.uk) quotes Reuter as as saying that Thomas Middelhoff, a board member of Bertelsmann AG, which has a significant stake in America Online, said that a decision on the merger could be made within a month. He noted that new data showed that 40% of US Internet traffic was flowing through America OnLine's network and that together with Netscape the two companies would effectively control the technology now shaping the global network - "And then Microsoft would be left without an Internet standard,".