Dow Jones Post
=DJ E.Digital Up -3: Potential Customers Surfacing In Vegas
Dow Jones News Service via Dow Jones
E.Digital specializes in development of portable digital audio, image and data
recording devices that connect to the Internet and local networks. It licenses
or custom designs products for original equipment manufacturers.
The company's chief executive, Alfred H. Falk, said potential new customers
have already shown interest in the portable music device being shown in IBM's
area in Las Vegas.
E.Digital built the buzz for maximum Vegas impact with several announcements
Thursday and Wednesday.
The company said it's in a pact with RioPort Inc., an S3 Inc. (SIII) and MTV
Networks venture, to integrate RioPort's secure digital audio platform with
E.Digital's Internet music player design.
Meanwhile, Liquid Audio Inc. (LQID) announced Thursday that E.Digital is one
of 12 consumer electronics companies it's working with to deliver portable music
devices that playback Liquid Audio's music.
On Wednesday, E.Digital said it licensed its player design to Maycom Co. Ltd.,
maker of the I-Jam digital MP3 player.
"There's just a lot going on with our company now," said E.Digital's Chief
Executive Alfred H. Falk. "People are starting to recognize the technology we're
involved with is going to change the way we listen to music."
Falk said many people were alerted to the potential of digital music devices
when Microsoft's Bill Gates said on Larry King Live recently that Internet music
will displace CDs in the next five years.
He also said technologies like E.Digital's, which promise to protect the
intellectual property of music companies and other content providers, will form
the second generation of handheld devices and displace free MP3 players.
Secure devices is "where the money is going to be made," Falk said.
But not just yet. E.Digital reported a gross profit of $3,527 on revenue of
$187,888 for the six months ended Sept. 30, 1999 to the Security and Exchange
Commission.
-Riva Richmond; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4046 |
