As we reported, Sun Microsystems Inc and Thomson Multimedia SA have restructured their Thomson Sun Interactive television alliance by spinning it off as a separate company (CI No 2,960). The alliance was formed in November 1994 to develop an interactive television software environment called OpenTV. It has since been adopted by various interactive television players in Europe and South Africa for trials, including France Telecom SA (CI No 2,892), which will get 2,000 decoders from the alliance with the environment embedded. The new company, Thomson Sun Interactive LLC will be based in Mountain View, California and has named Elliot Broadwin as its chief executive. He was previously VP sales and marketing for US and Pacific Rim for the alliance. Other appointments include Ian Halifax as CFO, Vincent Dureau as VP engineering, and Eric Dentler as VP sales. Halifax came to the alliance at its inception from Sun, where he had been the financial controller for its interactive services business, Dureau had worked for Thomson in various multimedia positions and Dentler spent ten years in sales management with Sun. The company has also set up a European subsidiary based in Paris.
