It turns out that Oracle Corp paid the equivalent of $77m in stock of its Network Computer Inc subsidiary to acquire for it the remainder of the Navio Inc joint venture with Netscape Communications Corp on web and browser software for network computers which it did not already own (CI No 3,164). It leaves Oracle with a reduced holding in NCI of around 66%. Oracle took a first quarter charge of $75.5m to account for in-process research and development – other assets are being amortized over three years – but at the same time gained $25.72m for Netscape’s share of the charge for writing down the research and development.
