Macromedia Inc has unveiled plans to establish Shockwave.com as a stand-alone, independently capitalized company, and has retained BancBoston Robertson Stephens to help with the spin-off. Part of the reasoning behind the move is to streamline both companies around their core competencies: Shockwave.com is an internet entertainment company and Macromedia is a software company, explained chairman and CEO Rob Burgess. What he didn’t say is that the two-month-old Shockwave.com competes directly with many of Macromedia’s content provider customers, a conflict that will only get worse as Macromedia moves into content management (see separate story). In spite of Burgess’ reticence, it’s reasonable to assume that the conflict of interest contributed in some small way to the spin-off of Shockwave.com.
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