Netopia Inc has paid $3m in cash and shares for Serus LLC, which builds web development and editing tools based on Sun’s Java programming language. Alameda, California-based Netopia was once better known as the Macintosh-only networking company, Farallon Communications Corp. As soon as Serus finishes developing its software platform, Netopia hopes to be able to sell the product to internet service providers, web hosting companies and internet communities around the world. If the developers get it right, even novice users should be able to use Serus’ toolkit to drag and drop web page elements and templates, thus creating entire sites from within the browser itself. Netopia also plans to integrate Serus technologies into its own Netopia Virtual Office (NVO) software platform. The acquisition will be accounted for under the purchase method and is expected to result in a one-time write-off for in-process research and development.
