But if Barksdale gets his way, there are going to be more of these relaxed mornings, though not in Silicon Valley. Within the next two months, he and his wife, Sally, will move to Aspen, Colo., among the mountains he loves and away from the California income tax he hates. Barksdale’s plan is to start an “angel” company that funds and advises new Internet start-ups, while deepening his involvement in philanthropy and politics and assisting AOL as a member of its board. One thing he says he will not do: return to the exacting task of running a company. “There’s no way anyone can pay me enough money to make it worthwhile,” he says. “I get a little too wrapped up in these things.”
Considering what he’s been through since he joined Netscape in January 1995, it’s hard to blame him. In the last four, frenetic years, Barksdale has launched one of the hottest start-ups in history and battled mighty Microsoft in the much-ballyhooed browser wars. When Bill Gates started distributing Internet Explorer free, Netscape lost its primary source of revenue and had to “change sneakers while running a marathon,” as Barksdale puts it. He ultimately guided Netscape into the lucrative e-commerce software and Web-portal markets. But his biggest gift to shareholders and employees is turning out to be the merger with America Online. First pegged last November at $4 billion, the deal’s value has ballooned because of AOL’s rocketing stock price and is now valued at around $15 billion. Barksdale’s shares alone are worth an estimated $700 million. Does he feel vindicated for selling the company? “The thought had occurred to me,” he says with a broad smile. “But vindication is a pejorative term. Let’s just say there’s a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.”
Despite the windfall, there’s a bittersweet edge to Barksdale’s voice as he talks about his future. After all, it was supposed to be Netscape that ended up buying the likes of America Online–not the other way around. Asked if the sale to AOL wasn’t, ultimately, a personal disappointment, Barksdale says, “I’d rather not get into that. It just appeared… that this alternative had greater shareholder value.” Netscape founder Jim Clark says the former CEO “built the company and fought the wars and created the culture.” Selling it “was like letting his baby be adopted.”
Still, Barksdale is a loyal soldier, and he vigorously supports Netscape’s new foster parent. He contests any suggestions of a “culture clash” between bleeding-edge tech upstart Netscape and the Virginia-based AOL, which has a reputation in some circles as a training-wheel online service with a theme-park view of the Internet. “There’s no company with more entrepreneurial spirit than AOL,” says Barksdale. “My God, look at what they’ve done.” He dismisses the comments of exiting employees like Jamie Zawinski, an outspoken programmer for Netscape’s Mozilla project, an effort to develop its browser with help from the public. In a resignation letter posted to the Web last month, Zawinski said the sale to AOL was “deeply depressing.” Barksdale says, “Jamie is a friend, but if I had listened to him on every decision we would never have been larger than 100 employees.”
In fact, the Netscape division of AOL now has 2,100 employees, many newly wealthy with AOL stock, a fact that allows Barksdale to plot his future with a clear conscience. Beyond starting the as-yet-unnamed angel investment company, he plans to help raise funds for GOP presidential contender George W. Bush. (He says that Al Gore, though outspoken on tech issues, has hurt the industry with a restrictive policy on encryption.) He also wants to recommit to giving away his own money, particularly in Mississippi, where he’s building a second home. Mostly, though, he says, “my hope is that I won’t get so restricted that I can’t just enjoy doing whatever I want to do when I want to do it.” It recalls one of Barksdale’s favorite aphorisms: “If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.” In his case, the race is over–and if anyone deserves to kick back for a bit, it’s Jim Barksdale.
