The notion of millions of couch potatoes surfing the web with their remote controls has caught Microsoft Corp’s fancy and yesterday the software giant took a minority equity position in television-browser start-up WebTV Networks. Four other firms announced investments in WebTV yesterday: Citicorp, VeriFone Inc, Times Mirror Corp and Lauder Partners. No financial details were released. Microsoft plans to co-develop future television/internet browsing technologies with the San Jose, California-based firm and will integrate elements of Internet Explorer into a future release of the WebTV browser. Redmond may also be interested in the smart card slot in WebTV’s hardware reference design for electronic commerce purposes; other software big boys such as IBM Corp have been making announcements in the area of electronic commerce left, right and center. WebTV licensed its hardware reference design to television manufacturers Sony Electronics Inc and Philips Consumer Electronics Inc, which began shipping TV-internet set-top boxes 10 days ago. WebTV provides the online service, thereby making money two ways (CI No 2,933). WebTV expects to sign up more hardware licensees in the near future. We’re talking to everyone, the firm said Monday.
