Several former executives at Intel Corp have formed ShareWave Inc, a company that says it will pioneer a new approach to distributing digital content in the home. ShareWave’s mission is to turn the home PC into a information furnace by extending its reach through integration with televisions and other consumer electronics appliances. The company sees the PC centrally connecting and controlling computing power and digital information among smart, digital appliances and sophisticated audio/visual products, including home entertainment systems, game consoles, telephones, kitchen appliances, electronic notepads, home security systems, Digital Satellite Systems and Digital Video Disc players. It seems the company is positioning itself for a battle with TCI which, with its recent licensing deals for Personal Java and Windows CE, looks intent on making the set-top box into a similar type of information furnace. But ShareWave president Bob Bennett sees his company’s mission going beyond what he perceives to be TCI’s focus on living room entertainment. ShareWave says it will deliver products based on its proprietary technology – which it won’t discuss in any detail – that establish and manage robust wireless connectivity between the PC and various home electronic appliances through the creation of an in-home network. The company says it has products in beta now and should begin delivering them in about six months. The target market will be homes that already have a PC. The company’s co- founders are Bennett, a former marketing director at Intel; Geoff Bland, vice president of finance and business development, formerly a partner of REP, LP, a $200m investment fund; Amar Ghori, vice president of engineering, who most recently was the architecture manager for Intel’s Microprocessor Division 6; and John White, vice president of strategic planning, whose ten years at Intel culminated in his role as a senior product planner defining next-generation microprocessors. The search is on now for the rest of the senior management team, including a chief executive, and further announcements on that front are due shortly. Investors in the new company – which says it has received $7.5m in two rounds of financing – include Microsoft Corp, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures, Softbank Holdings and a large microprocessor company based in Santa Clara, California, obviously a not-so-veiled reference to Intel. ShareWave says its third round of financing is already well under way and that it is in discussions with major PC manufacturers, peripheral makers and consumer electronics companies.
