I used Lexis before there was AltaVista, though I did not pay for it directly. I used AltaVista before there was Google. I'm confident I'd pay to continue using

I used Lexis before there was AltaVista, though I did not pay for it directly. I used AltaVista before there was Google. I'm confident I'd pay to continue using Google. $10/month would be a no-brainer, which is I think much higher than Google's current ARPU. Who was the business genius who starved AltaVista? I don't mean who pulled the plug. I mean who under-resourced it so that, in it's final years, it was too late to compete with even a nascent Google.