The browser wars may be over and irrelevant, but don’t tell Jet Multimedia SA of Lyon: the company aims to best both Netscape Communications Corp and Microsoft Corp and make its France Explorer browser the French standard in place of Navigator or Explorer. To be launched on December 12, France Explorer will be distributed free from January providing access to the Internet, to existing multimedia servers and to the Minitel electronic phone book and on-line database system from a home personal computer. Jet Multimedia plans to use France Telecom’s Internet Kiosk, telephone numbers that give access to the Internet using its backbone telecommunications infrastructure; the numbers are taken by access providers such as Jet Multimedia; callers pay for usage by duration, with France Telecom paying a portion of the charge to the service company. Jet Multimedia was founded as Jet Lag in 1989 and specializes in electronic publishing and multimedia. It acquired telecommunications technology specialist Computer Answer Line in September. Jet Multimedia floated on the Second Marche in April, raising $8.6m; net profit was $1.4m on sales of $33m last year. It claims to be third after Axime SA and Assistance Genie Logiciel SA in database services on the Minitel system.
