Computer Associates International Inc has acquired two privately- held 3D content companies, ViewPoint DataLabs International Inc and the inexplicably titled 3Name3D. The combined entity will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of CA, doing business under the ViewPoint name. CA says it wants to retain all its newly acquired staff, although cynics might say that it has seldom managed to do so in past acquisitions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In making these purchases, the enterprise software giant has inadvertently lent credence to the views espoused by rival Platinum Technology Inc’s CEO Andrew Flip Filipowski. In a September Comdex Enterprise keynote address, he asserted that the next generation of business software applications must employ 3D interfaces or face premature obsolescence (CI No 3,493). CA chairman and CEO Charles Wang has evidently held similar convictions for some time. Since at least 1995, CA’s flagship network management application Unicenter TNG has boasted a 3D graphical front-end, which lets systems administrators fly through virtual network diagrams to identify server problems. In April 1997 CA took an equity stake in 3name3D. More recently, Microsoft has said it will bundle the Unicenter TNG Framework – the 3D interface – with its Windows NT 5.0 operating system, now called Windows 2000. These latest acquisitions should be seen in that context. The benefits of 3D graphics in film, TV, ads and games can also benefit users of large scale technology management and enterprise software applications, Wang explained at a Los Angeles press conference on Thursday. But where Platinum Technology has chosen to buy VRML pioneers Cosmo Software and InterVista Software to entrench itself in infrastructure, what 3name3D and ViewPoint bring to CA is content. As Wang put it: Combining their graphics creativity and content libraries will create a new and different visual business world. That content comes in two forms: 3D models and interfaces. ViewPoint creates, publishes and licenses 3D models for presentations and films. It claims it has thousands of customers and tens of thousands of objects. By contrast, the founders of 3name3D were architects. An education in architecture has provided us with a unique combination of skills, said president and CEO Sandeep Divekar, architecture is the building of interfaces for function and interfaces. A cathedral is an interface with divinity. Continuing in this lofty vein, Divekar said: we intend to create a new breed of applications and new markets for visualization technology where none have existed before.
