Possible competition?
dailynews.yahoo.com
Friday July 30 1:10 AM ET
IBM's Lotus, Macromedia In Corporate Training Pact
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lotus Development Corp. and Macromedia Inc. (Nasdaq:MACR - news) Thursday said they agreed to a deal in which the IBM corporate software unit would buy Macromedia's training software business and resell its coursework-development materials.
Lotus, a unit of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news), said it was seeking to become the top supplier of computer-based training, a market that has been fragmented by a lack of common software used to design coursework content.
Terms of the deal call for Macromedia to receive up $30 million over three years, said Rob Burgess, the company's chairman and chief executive, in a phone interview.
The two companies said the new training offerings resulting from their strategic alliance would give businesses, schools and other organizations a simple means of creating, delivering and managing Web-based training and coursework.
Jeff Papows, Lotus president and chief operating officer, said the deal with Macromedia would help accelerate Lotus' efforts to develop an online training network with thousands of program developers, up from the current few hundreds now working with Lotus.
''This strategic relationship will... really accelerate the adoption of online learning in the enterprise,'' Papows said, referring to computer learning in large organizations.
Under the pact, IBM would acquire Macromedia's Pathware training software, which automates the process of delivering courses over the Internet, using animation and other software from Macromedia.
Pathware, which functions as a self-paced learning tool, fills a key gap in the existing line-up of training software programs available from Lotus.
Lotus, creators of the vast Notes software system used by 37 million office workers worldwide, brings a vast potential audience to computer-based training.
Lotus also agreed to distribute some other Macromedia animation and content development software tools for Web-based learning, including Authorware, the most popular tool, and Director, the No. 3 seller for creating such coursework.
The No. 2 most popular content creation tool is from Asymetrix Learning Systems Inc. . Other training software developers include Learn2.com, which is in a deal to acquire ViaGrafix Corp. (Nasdaq:VIAX - news) .
Papows said he expected the deal to close within 30 days and for a Lotus-branded version of the Pathware product to be available by September. In the subsequent months, Lotus will push ahead to develop an integrated version of Pathware that fits as a piece within Lotus' LearningSpace software line.
Lotus and its corporate parent IBM also agreed to license a range of popular Internet content-development software programs from Macromedia, including Authorware, Flash and Shockwave, for use in Lotus and IBM's own products, including Lotus Notes.
Lotus said it plans to integrate Pathware into its Distributed Learning Business Group, which develops and markets Lotus LearningSpace, the company's Web-based training system, which counts nearly one million users.
Pathware provides Lotus with self-paced learning software that is more interactive, with improvements that provide students with instant feedback to questions and with the capacity to customize training based on different learning speeds.
It supplements existing LearningSpace products, including virtual classroom software in which an instructor and students can meet simultaneously on a Web site, and ongoing courses in which students and teachers collaborate from time to time, a Lotus spokeswoman said.
Macromedia said it will continue to ship, sell and support Pathware until a transition to the Lotus Distributed Learning Division is completed. Lotus will then sell and support Pathware as a stand-alone product.
Pathware, while a small part of Macromedia's $150 million a year business, has grown rapidly in recent quarters, producing $1 million in revenue in the first quarter of 1999 and $2 million in the recently ended June quarter, Burgess said. |
