PricewaterhouseCoopers takes stake in
InterTrust
By Melanie Austria Farmer
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 13, 2000, 7:25 a.m. PT
InterTrust Technologies today said it has formed an alliance and cut a licensing deal with consulting firm WaterhouseCoopers for InterTrust's digital rights
management products.
As part of the deal, PricewaterhouseCoopers has made an equity investment of an
undisclosed amount in the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, the companies said in a
statement. PricewaterhouseCoopers said it has also agreed to use InterTrust as the
preferred digital rights management (DRM) provider for its clients and is licensed to sell
InterTrust products, offer consulting services, and implement and manage the DRM
software.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
InterTrust, one of the early players in DRM, gives content
providers a way to block illegal copying with its flagship
product, MetaTrust Utility. InterTrust competes against
companies like Reciprocal, another DRM pioneer, and
Canada-based RightMarkets.com. The DRM market has
been gaining wider attention from investors in recent
months.
Yesterday, Reciprocal announced that key IBM executive
John Schwartz has joined the company as chief executive.
Last November, Reciprocal nabbed a $35 million round in
financing from a broad investing group including Xerox and
Hewlett-Packard.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and InterTrust said they will work
together to provide the technology and services necessary
for clients to manage and protect digital products, such as music, video, games, images
and business information. PricewaterhouseCoopers said it will also use InterTrust
technology to develop DigiHub, an online service center that will process, analyze and
protect business data and proprietary content. |
