Microsoft Corp will sell advertising on the Microsoft Network for $7,500 a month and a 12-month commitment for advertisers that want to buy a billboard-like icon known as a shortcut: users that click on the icon would be taken directly to the Internet home page of the advertiser; advertisers will not be charged until Microsoft Network, has at least 500,000 subscribers; under the Network’s revenue-sharing arrangement, independent content providers would keep between 70% and 95% of revenue they generate; Microsoft also is offering a hybrid arrangement under which companies that provide content directly to the network could pay $5,000 a month for a hypertext short cut that would send users to related pages on the Internet and that rate is also based on a 12-month commitment, with Microsoft not charging until 500,000 subscribers sign up. – o – Rodime Plc says the first preliminary court date for its lawsuit against Seagate Technology Inc has been pushed back again – to August 15 from July 17: the latest rescheduling means an 18 month delay from the first date for the pre-trial conference originally set by the US central district court of California, and Rodime has filed for the case to be transferred to a different judge in the same court.
Microsoft Corp says Blackbird, its on-line authoring tool is now in beta test and will be ready to ship by January: Microsoft has distributed nearly 3,000 copies to developers, and the software is designed to enable content providers to create multimedia sites on the Microsoft Network; a second version will be available by the end of 1996 that will enable content providers to create sites on the Internet as well as on the Microsoft Network; other development tools can be integrated transparently with Blackbird using Object Linking & Embedding, and Macromedia Inc and Adobe Systems Inc are among those that have said they will support Blackbird with their authoring tools.
Purchase, New York-based Spectrum Information Technologies Inc said it has received a non-binding offer from a corporation interested in acquiring the capital stock of its Spectrum Global Services contract engineering subsidiary: the proposed sale would need a binding contract, solicitation of competitive bids and bankruptcy court approval.
Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular SA, collector of international franchises, reports it added 33,107 cellular subscribers worldwide in the second quarter, bringing it to a total of 171,059, a doubling over 12 months.
Pakistan is playing catch-up after seeing the success of its vast southern neighbour in becoming a major player in the field after 20 years of trying, and is now planning a package of incentives for local and foreign firms in an effort to create an export-oriented software industry: Shahid Mir, managing director of the government’s newly-created Private Software Export Board, told Reuters that the incentive would be designed to attract major software houses and conversion firms from Canada, the US and Europe to open in Pakistan; the incentives will include preferred rates on data communications through satellite earth stations, 100% foreign ownership, protection against piracy and office space with modern facilities, Mir said.
Methuen, Massachusetts-based MicroTouch Systems Inc has received a key patent for its combination analogue capacitive touch screen and pen digitiser, which will protect the company’s touch screen and TouchPen products: the technology is used in cash registers, multimedia kiosks, gaming machines, industrial control hardware and other computer-based systems, it noted; the patent also protects MicroTouch’s Intelligent Hand Rejection technology, which relates to the TouchPen’s ability to discriminate between a pen and a finger input.
General Instrument Corp reports that Optus Vision Ltd has awarded the company a contract for the addressable television set-top terminals that will bring interactive two-way services to its cable system subscribers in Australia: Optus Vision is buildin
g Australia’s first combined cable television and telephone network, which will pass some 3m households Australia-wide by 1998; terms were not disclosed.
Ernst & Young LLP has acquired the consulting practice of Distributed Systems Solutions International Inc, Westlake Village, California consulting firm specialising in the development and deployment of complex applications using Lotus Notes and other groupware products; the company had $5m turnover last year.
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and its four units are to $880m over the next few years to build a national emergency telecommunications system: the measures will include development of a nationwide voice-mail system and a satellite-based communications system, as well as construction of underground cables more resilient to disasters.
San Jose, California-based multimedia boards maker Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc says it plans to expand its worldwide manufacturing capabilities to include offshore subcontracted facilities in the Far East, and also plans a European logistics centre here in the UK.
Sorry Louis, you’re doing a grand job turning IBM Corp around, but you’ve still scarcely scratched the surface if a shocking tale told by Javaid Aziz to the Wall Street Journal is anything to go by: survival in an industry as fast-moving as computers requires that all key people have a working knowledge of major competitors and the emerging technologies that shape the future, regardless of their own specialisations, so we were a little disconcerted at Aziz, who left IBM UK Ltd to run Silicon Graphics Inc’s operations here in Europe, saying he found that three of the four IBM Europe executives he told had never heard of Silicon Graphics – perhaps as a service to his old employers, he might like to mail a note naming them to Mr Gerstner over in Armonk.
