Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates told the banking industry’s Automated Teller Machine event, the 1997 Retail Delivery Conference in New Orleans, that he had no intention of entering the banking business, and said Microsoft was highly motivated to see that banks regard Microsoft’s technology offerings as complementary to their own activities. KeyCorp’s Keybank, which was showing off a new automated teller machine in conjunction with Microsoft and Diebold Inc was quick to point out that its Microsoft agreement was not exclusive, and that it is also a partner in the IBM Corp led Integrion banking consortium. Back in 1995, when IBM was attempting to muscle in on the home banking market through its failed acquisition of Intuit Corp, analysts were predicting that Microsoft would have muscled its way into the top 15 fund services suppliers by the Year 2000, capturing substantial business from the banks (CI No 2,619). Those fears have clearly not yet gone away.
