Microsoft a direct competitor to AOL would place the AOL icon on the Windows
desktop right next to the icon for its own online service, the Microsoft Network (MSN). AOL’s position on “the most valuable desktop real estate in the world” would permit it to reach an additional 50 million people per year at effectively no cost, compared with its $40 to $80 per-customer acquisition cost incurred by “carpet bombing” the country with AOL disks. In effect, Bill Gates sacrificed the mediumterm position of MSN to his larger goal of winning the browser war.