AOL Woos Netscape Employees

America Online is offering all 2,300 Netscape employees an extra month's pay as an incentive to stay on at least until AOL completes its takeover.

Steve Case, the chairman of America Online Inc., sought to assure employees of Netscape Communications Corp. that the Internet innovator will remain "a cool company," while acknowledging that corporate talent-hunters have their eye on Netscape's headquarters.

"The most important thing ... for us is all you folks, and the contributions you have made," Case said at a meeting with Netscape employees on Monday. "We also recognize there are headhunters out there."

AOL's $4.3 billion takeover of Netscape, and a separate deal with Sun Microsystems Inc., will be a good thing for Netscape employees, officials of all three companies said at the meeting with workers.

Case told the Netscape workers that after the merger is completed next spring, stock options will remain valuable, their sabbatical program will remain in place, and their corporate culture will remain intact.

"Maybe you joined the company because it was a cool company," he said. "We are not changing any of that. We want to run this as an independent culture."

Case's talk, and speeches by Jim Barksdale of Netscape and Scott McNealy of Sun, were interrupted several times by cheers from the audience.

McNealy said the companies will work hard to keep customers happy, fend off Silicon Valley rivals trying to lure away Netscape employees, and keep the egos of engineers at Sun and Netscape in check as they learn to collaborate.

McNealy drew cheers as he read a list of the "Top 10 reasons Netscape should have acquired AOL." The top reason, McNealy said, was that Barksdale, who hails from Mississippi, could force AOL to change its familiar greeting to "Y'all got mail."