Continuum Productions Corp, Bellevue, Washington is to sell some of its technology and product development efforts to Microsoft Corp if the Microsoft board agrees. Continuum is the start-up multimedia venture financed by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates that has been busily buying up electronic rights to world-famous paintings, and will continue to concentrate on the core activities of creating a digital database incorporating various arts and media. Continuum president Stephen Arnold says he will begin actively recruiting a senior executive for Continuum and is to take a senior post at Microsoft later. Gates is also chairman of Continuum and says the two agreed it was logical for us to look at ways to combine some aspects of the work being done by both companies and to integrate that combined effort under the Microsoft umbrella. About 55 of Continuum’s staff are expected to transfer, leaving about 60 people working on the media database at Continuum Productions. Continuum was formed as Interactive Home Systems in 1989 to explore providing interactive information to homes, schools, firms and public institutions.
