AOL's Dynamic Birth Story

AOL's stock leapt nearly 600% in 1998 alone. $10,000 invested in AOL in 1993 was worth more than $848,000 only five years later. Wall Street didn't care whether or not AOL rode the fine line between merely being gatekeeper for the internet and actually competing with the internet for user interest. All Wall Street saw was that AOL had beaten CompuServe, Prodigy, and even MSN.