The most successful television “portal” to date has been the ubiquitous scrolling
programming guide that millions of bleary-eyed television addicts scan each day to
find an upcoming episode of NYPD Blue, Seinfeld, or The Beverly Hillbillies. During the
1990 s, several companies struggled to gain control over that very low-tech but also
very important television portal. That struggle eventually culminated in a large-scale
financial fraud that imposed billions of dollars of losses on investors worldwide.