SCRM...anyone long? Here's the story -->
In-flight broadband ready for
takeoff
By Reuters
May 7, 2001, 5:55 a.m. PT
NEW YORK--Internet content and technology provider ScreamingMedia said on
Monday it reached a deal with Boeing, the world's largest commercial aircraft maker,
to provide passengers with broadband access services, including Internet and e-mail,
while they fly.
"We are licensing our core software, the SiteWare, which will sit on the ground in the Boeing
Connexion content center," ScreamingMedia Chief Executive Kevin Clark said in an interview,
referring to the new service, named Connexion by Boeing.
He said the deal was the largest content and licensing contract ever for ScreamingMedia,
although he did not provide financial terms. A similar agreement with AT&T, the U.S.
long-distance and cable TV giant, had been ScreamingMedia's No. 1 deal.
Boeing is an "important
customer" and will bring
"meaningful revenue," Clark
said without elaborating. "The
impact will be within the
guidelines we've given
investors."
Clark said that
ScreamingMedia is
"extremely" well funded. The
New York-based company
ended 2000 with $98 million
on its balance sheet. "We
need less than half of that
capital to get us to
profitability."
Two analysts surveyed by
research firm First Call see
ScreamingMedia on average posting a loss of 50 cents a share in 2001 and a loss of 9 cents a
share in 2002.
The new service will be available for commercial airlines in late 2001 or early 2002, Clark said,
although a service is already running in prototype in some business jets. Passengers will pay a
fee for the service, but the amount was not detailed.
The first 10 destinations that will feature ScreamingMedia's services while on board
Boeing-made aircraft are San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Denver,
Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.
"For example, when a passenger gets on a plane from Los Angeles to New York, he'll get all
the information about the weather, where to go, concerts,'' he said.
Clark said no comparable service exists.
ScreamingMedia has offices in New York, San Francisco, Miami, London, Paris and Sydney
and 250 employees worldwide.
Its shares closed at $1.72 on Friday, slightly above its year low of $1 but 90 percent below its
52-week high of $15.75. Boeing shares closed the week at $64.50, up from a year low of
$36.25 and close to its 52-week high of $70.94. |
