Kara Swisher

says her new business biography, aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web, is the story of how a small company in the Washington suburbs, beat the odds and its competitors and "became the giant it is today."

Swisher covered America Online and the Internet for The Washington Post from 1994 to 1997, when she moved to San Francisco to cover Silicon Valley for The Wall Street Journal. In Silicon Valley, she finds that "self-congratulation and self-deception are now part of the valley's ethos."

She took advantage of her unprecedented access to AOL and its senior corporate officials to write a near-insider's view of the rise and rise of AOL. Considering the competition it has faced -- from the older and more entrenched CompuServe or Prodigy and the new, well-funded Microsoft Network -- AOL's position as an online powerhouse warrants some explaining.

Paul Schindler talked to Swisher about AOL's near-death experience of nearly being bought (first by Paul Allen then by Bill Gates, in the same week) and her theories on why it has survived in a highly competitive market. The interview began with Swisher reading from the conclusion of her book.

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Job
Author: aol.com: How Steve Case beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web

Education
Bachelor's degree, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Master's of Science degree, Columbia University School of Journalism

Career
Washington, D.C. City Paper, McLaughlin Group television show, The Washington Post arts and culture reporter, then business news reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Personal
Lives in San Francisco

To purchase aol.com, click here. On Paul Allen
They didn't share his vision. Even though he owned 25 percent of the company, they wanted nothing to do with him.

On Steve Case And His Knowledge Of The Future
Deep down you suspect he probably has a notion of what the truth is: and the truth is, nobody knows.

Nicknames For AOL
The Digital Dracula, the Online Lazarus [because it has been pronounced dead so often, and yet continues to survive].

Wanted To Name The Book
@aol.com, but her publisher thought bookstores wouldn't know where to shelve it.

To purchase aol.com, click here.