DTOP v WAVO story
November 10, 1997
Providers of Desktop News Services Plan
Merger
By Whit Andrews
webweek.com:80/current/news/19971110-desktop.html
The announcement last week of merger plans by Individual Inc.
and Desktop Data Inc. brings the news-to-the-desktop
business a step closer to a Coke-and-Pepsi rivalry from the
dozen-flavor market it was just a year ago.
The deal, expected to close in early 1998, locks high-end
client-server stalwart Desktop Data in with Individual, an
intranet and Internet upstart. It consolidates a handful of
acquisitions Individual has made in the last few years with
Desktop's string of positive earnings results and corporate
cachet.
"We're combining more than just products and services," said
Desktop CEO Don McLagan, who will lead the merged entity,
tentatively named NewsEdge after Desktop's flagship product.
"We're combining company strengths."
With the new company, a merger of near-equals that results in a
market capitalization at current stock values of about $180
million, they're also building an entity that may be better able to
withstand the ongoing heavy consolidation in the news-delivery
business. Individual snapped up three companies since 1996,
including now-shuttered FreeLoader and Internet veteran
ClariNet.
The new company's major competitor is WavePhore Inc.,
which has expanded out of the business of providing hardware
and software delivery systems to handing out content as well via
its NewsCast product, which has challenged Desktop Data as
intranets simplify the delivery process.
WavePhore is also a Desktop supplier, providing the company
with airwave delivery of real-time news feeds for some
companies. And news suppliers to both companies, such as
Dow Jones and Reuters, also compete with them on some level.
Desktop Data and Individual are still hammering out their
planned product line, the company executives said. But together
they can offer products to much of the business- information
vertical market, from a free advertising-supported feed to a
full-price line of NewsObjects, intended for insertion in
Windows and Java applications.
Still missing, however, are the hardware and network strengths
that WavePhore offers and a consumer product, which
WavePhore's WaveTop division intends to roll out over TV
airwaves this fall. WavePhore, on the other hand, lacks the
low-end services for businesses that Individual has provided. |
