Personal computer X server market leader Hummingbird Communications Ltd, Markham, Ontario, is paying $6m for one of its existing technology partners, Common Ground Software Inc, Redwood City, California to kick off its Intranet strategy, and says other acquisitions will follow. Hummingbird will develop Common Gound’s suite of document conversion, authoring and management tools for use with its own Columbus personal computer-based Internet access software, which is due out this month, claiming that an integrated system will be able to access and convert data and documentation to HyperText Mark-up Language. Columbus includes a browser, File Transfer Protocol, Telnet, the Gather search tool and configuration software. Columbus 1.0 will cost $200 to $400 on Windows; it will have Windows95 and NT versions by summertime. Common Ground’s AutoMaker batch file conversion software sells for $2,500. Its Web Publishing System is priced at $1,000.
