The problem with buying a company like Lotus Development Corp if you are the size of IBM Corp is that there will be a sizable number of key people that won’t want to work for a megalith no matter how much you try to accommodate them. So it is, reports US PC Week, that three key former Lotus executives have come together in the kind of environment they prefer and have created Narrative Communications Corp to develop Internet-based multimedia software – and have tapped former Lotus chief technical officer John Landry to be chairman of the new company. The aim is to develop a new class of animation tools for the Internet, Allison Parker, vice-president of marketing at the Waltham, Massachusetts company and a former Lotus product manager told the paper. People’s tolerance waiting for graphics on the Internet has kind of maxed out, said Ms Parker, so the company is combining a variety of technical approaches to shorten the time it takes to view animation and other multimedia on the Internet for users with nothing faster than a 28.8Kbps modem. Narrative has not announced specific product plans but she says it may be in a position to demonstrate its new technology as early as next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. The 10-employee company was formed by Ms Parker with Hilmi Ozguc, a former Lotus vice-president of development, and Scott Kliger, a technical architect at Lotus. Paul Santinelli, another former Lotus product manager, will head marketing and business development. Landry still serves as a technical consultant to IBM. Narrative has raised first round venture capital from Greylock Management Co of Boston.
