First Virtual Corporation has signed an agreement to acquire ICAST Corp, a privately held firm which develops voice and video broadcast systems to run over IP. The purchase is valued at around $8m. ICAST co-founder and president Vinay Kumar, a veteran of the net’s multimedia backbone or Mbone, will become head of streaming and broadcast programs for First Virtual. In a baffling change of direction, the former internet financial institution recently sold off its payments business to Cybercash Inc and acquired Email Publishing Inc, a mail and messaging provider. Just how messaging and broadcast video technology fit into the former bank may be unclear to ordinary mortals, but First Virtual explains that it is now a leading provider of Next Generation Internet applications. To reflect its change of focus, the company has also announced a change of name to FVC.com. FVC’s cryptic strategies may owe something to the company that owns a controlling interest in it, the equally mystifying Japanese holding company Softbank Corp (CI No 3,464).
