Underlining its bid to move into the network computer space in some style (CI No 3,109) Hamburg, Germany-based office software suite specialist Star Division Gmbh has carved out separate joint licensing agreements with Oracle Corp affiliate Network Computer Inc and with Sun Microsystems Inc over the past few months. Both deals involve bundling of the StarOffice suite, which incorporates Web-enabled word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, email, charting and graphics applications. Under terms of the first agreement, NCI is bundling Star Division’s StarOffice with its Network Computer Server software worldwide. At a rough estimate, Star Division says the deal could see over 500,000 pieces of StarOffice 4.0 bundled. Meanwhile, in what the company describes as a far-reaching marketing and distribution alliance, Sun Microsystems has begun shipping the package with its Ultra Workstations on a CD containing the multilingual version of StarOffice 4.0 for Solaris and the Java client. While the Sun deal currently only covers German-speaking countries, Star says that there are plans in place on both sides to expand the deal to other countries. The latest alliances further establish the Hamburg-based company as a thorn in the side of Microsoft Corp, with the signing up of two of its bitterest rivals. The company has been thwarting the Redmond, California-based giant on its home ground by carving out around 25% of the German software suite market, selling internationalized versions of its Microsoft Office compatible package for around half the price (CI No 3,172). The agreements look to give Star Division an important foot in the door in the emerging network computing market. According to product specialist, Frank Loehmann: These are very important deals for us, and will help to establish us in the English market where we haven’t got a big presence. Loehmann cites major rivals as the likes of Applix Inc, IBM’s Lotus Development Corp and Corel Corp, adding that the company now plans to go for an initial public offering on Nasdaq in the second quarter of 1998.
