Joe, DIAL news. Jeff
UK's Dialog <DLG.L>signs deal with Fujitsu
By Arindam Nag
LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - British online business information group Dialog Corp Plc on Wednesday unveiled an alliance with Japanese information technology giant Fujitsu Ltd <6702.T>, sparking a steep rise in Dialog shares.
Fujitsu will install Dialog's InfoSort software -- an electronic data filing and categorisation system -- on its hardware and network applications.
In return, Dialog said it would get several million pounds in fees for licences, services and technology support and royalties for sales of online services.
Dialog's shares, under pressure in recent months, rose 16.5 pence or 15 percent to 126p at 0930 GMT.
Faced with debts of some 150 million pounds ($240.8 million), following its 261 million pound purchase of the Knight Ridder Information in 1997, Dialog's shares have fallen from over 235 pence since last August.
Under the deal, Fujitsu, which sold almost four million computers last year, will become a reseller and distributor of Dialog's range of information products and technologies worldwide.
Fujitsu will also would develop Japanese versions of InfoSort and Dialog's knowledge management solution, LiveIntranet.
"The fact they will be offering our online services and technologies as preferred solutions to their vast global customer base accelerates InfoSort's potential to become an industry standard," said Dialog Chief Executive Dan Wagner.
"There is no doubt that as this new phase of in our relationship develops, we will be exploring other potential applications of Dialog's technologies and new areas in which we can work together," he added.
Wagner founded the company, then known as M.A.I.D, out of his unemployment benefits when as a former advertising professional he felt the need for a simpler alternative to the reams of corporate information in a city library.
However, the company has been struggling in recent times to transform the promise of growth into reality. Its pre-tax profit in the first quarter of 1999 fell to just 425,000 pounds, down from 1.85 million.
The Dialog-Fujitsu deal was also praised by British Prime Minister Tony Blair who described it as a "welcome development in Anglo-Japanese trading relations."
"I am particularly encouraged by this news, not only because of the immediate benefits that will accrue to a British company, but also because Britain's reputation for innovation and competitiveness in IT will be greatly enhanced in Japan and around the world," Blair said in a statement.
The announcement of the deal coincided with UK telecom company Cable & Wireless<CW.L> -- supported by the British government -- winning a takeover battle for Japanese carrier IDC, the first foreign group to win a contested takeover in Japan .
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