0-gravity stocks: and Online Music: Regulation Noise
Antitrust concerns have cast a shadow over major-label online music services MusicNet and Pressplay since the two were announced months ago. After all, their backers control about 80 percent of the U.S. music market. But now that Justice Department trustbusters are officially looking into the businesses, the labels should expect that the Feds won't stop at the joint ventures.
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One point that may be raising eyebrows at Justice: major labels acquiring the very same digital music firms they resisted licensing music to and then sued for copyright infringement. Another problem may stem from labels dragging their feet in offering those licenses to others as they rush to roll out their own services first.
Then there's price fixing, always a concern in antitrust investigations. Vivendi Universal Executive Vice Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. recently said Pressplay will dictate pricing for affiliates such as Yahoo.
The record labels are likely to argue they needed to pool resources - Sony and Universal created Pressplay, while BMG, EMI and Warner made MusicNet - to quickly establish a single standard to protect music. But that argument may not fly because companies such as Liquid Audio developed technology the labels could have used to securely sell music online five years ago.
The label's slow-footed approach online may provide the ultimate justification for the joint ventures. Strange as it sounds, regulators may be willing to accept the ventures if the partners involved can prove the labels might otherwise be on the digital sidelines.
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InterTrust Acquires Zero Gravity Technologies
Acquisition Accelerates InterTrust's Entry Into the Enterprise Market With Governed E-Mail
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- InterTrust Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: ITRU - news), the leading provider of trusted Digital Rights Management (DRM), today announced that it has acquired Zero Gravity Technologies Corporation, a San Francisco developer of policy-based messaging DRM applications for enterprise markets. InterTrust will use Zero Gravity's secure e-mail product, Z-Mail, to help accelerate Rights|System entry into enterprise markets. The Zero Gravity acquisition augments InterTrust's intention to complement DRM technology for the consumer entertainment world with an emphasis on secure, distributed enterprise information and process management. Zero Gravity provides InterTrust with a highly focused and low-cost rights management productivity tool.
Zero Gravity's DRM-enabled application allows enterprises to protect and control their confidential data -- both outside and inside their virtual walls. Z-Mail, the company's initial product, is an easily and widely distributable, low-cost policy enforcing mail client. Z-Mail ensures that only intended recipients can open e-mail messages and attached files, provides detailed audit trails, manages expiration policies and allows senders to restrict the recipient's ability to print and forward the messages. By enabling enterprise clients to easily and persistently set their own customized rules governing access to sensitive content, InterTrust believes that Rights|System based Z-Mail will demonstrate the powerful ability of its DRM technology in addressing fundamental corporate policy automation requirements. Initial target markets include financial services, healthcare, biotechnology, and legal.
``This acquisition provides InterTrust with the basis for an attractive cornerstone entry-level product,'' said Victor Shear, chairman and chief executive officer of InterTrust Technologies Corporation. ``A low-cost, secure server/peer-to-peer mail and messaging applications suite can address many of the policy enforcement, auditing, and compliance requirements that InterTrust believes are important to a wide variety of enterprise markets. Successful market penetration with a widely used trust resource for messaging would provide InterTrust with a distributed, installed base for further rights management services.''
``DRM applications in the enterprise will open numerous revenue opportunities for InterTrust,'' said David Ludvigson, InterTrust's President. ``Zero Gravity's expertise in this space, coupled with Rights|System's flexible rights management functionality, will enable us to reach this market with targeted solutions that set a standard for next generation enterprise computing.''
By mapping Zero Gravity's application suite onto Rights|System, InterTrust will deliver enterprise solutions to PC, server, device and mobile environments. This will allow solutions providers to deliver secure document and policy management applications to a broad spectrum of vertical enterprise markets.
``Integrating our applications with InterTrust's new Rights|System platform will enable us to deliver a compelling capability for controlling and managing sensitive enterprise information,'' said Steven L. Fingerhood, chief executive officer of Zero Gravity. ``We will have a far greater ability to serve the enterprise market by leveraging InterTrust's technology, partnerships and resources. We also expect to benefit from InterTrust's formidable array of patents awarded to protect inventions we believe are key to policy-based e-mail.''
Rights|System is InterTrust's innovative cross-platform format-independent DRM solution set. Zero Gravity's Z-Mail policy enforcement solution extends the Rights|System platform and opens new market segments. The initial Rights|System based Z-Mail product is expected to be in the market by year-end.
In acquiring Zero Gravity, InterTrust will add six employees. Mr. Fingerhood will join InterTrust as Senior Vice President for Digital Policy Management. Prior to founding Zero Gravity, he served as Chairman and Chief Strategic Officer of INT'L.com, a provider of multilingual Internet services to enterprise clients, which at the time of its sale in May 2000 was a global industry leader with approximately 460 employees servicing 250 enterprise clients in the US, Europe and Asia. Mr. Fingerhood also has significant merchant banking experience.
Overall, InterTrust expense levels are not expected to increase significantly as a result of this acquisition. InterTrust has paid $500,000 (net of cash received) and has issued 500,000 new shares of InterTrust common stock to acquire all of the shares of Zero Gravity that it does not already own. In addition, InterTrust assumed outstanding Zero Gravity employee stock options equivalent to approximately 70,000 shares of InterTrust stock.
About InterTrust Technologies Corporation
Over the past eleven years, InterTrust has dramatically changed the landscape and importance of DRM. As the first company to devise a digital commerce network, the MetaTrust Utility, to help other businesses manage and protect their proprietary data, InterTrust acts as a neutral third party to ensure security and interoperability over the Internet and other electronic devices. InterTrust's more than 40 licensees and partners include Adobe, AOL/TimeWarner, BlockBuster, BMG Entertainment, Cirrus, Compaq, Digital World Services, Enron, Magex, Mitsubishi, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and Universal Music Group.
About Zero Gravity
Zero Gravity Technologies Corporation was founded in June 2000 to address growing enterprise requirements to protect and manage sensitive digital information. Zero Gravity provides the enterprise market with secure messaging, secure document governance and digital policy management solutions. Zero Gravity solutions are oriented towards sectors such as financial services, healthcare, biotechnology, legal and other markets where security, digital policy management, privacy, protection of intellectual property, content integrity and regulatory compliance are of particular importance.
The statements contained in this release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding InterTrust's expectations, beliefs, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future.
All forward-looking statements included in this document are based upon information available to InterTrust as of the date hereof, and InterTrust assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Actual results could differ materially from current expectations.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the factors and risks discussed in InterTrust's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
DigiBox, the InterTrust logo, MetaTrust, and The MetaTrust Utility are registered trademarks of InterTrust Technologies Corporation, and TrustChip, RightsChip, InterRights Point, MetaTrust-Certified, Rights/PD and Rights/System are trademarks of InterTrust Technologies Corporation, all of which may or may not be used in certain jurisdictions.
All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or organizations.
zerogravitytech.com
canada internetti portaali??! ja plajon muuta firmaa löytyy
Pumatech Licenses Browse-it 2.0 Software to Zero Gravity for Its Wireless Internet SolutionThere is high demand for a complete wireless Palm OS solution in Canada. After reviewing the browsing technologies available to us, we found Pumatech's technology to be the best solution available," stated Harold Korsunsky, CEO of Zero Gravity. "Specifically, the enhanced browsing capabilities provide a strong foundation on which to build our solution."
wirelessdevnet.com
SEC Info - Zero Gravity Funds - N-30D - For 6/30/0
... e-harmon Internet Fund changed its name to Zero Gravity Internet Fund. In addition,
the Fund is ... F1> 2,000 90,750 i2 Technologies, Inc.<F1> 950 99,052 ...
Zero Gravity - Careers - tää kanadalainen
... Zero Gravity is seeking experienced, team-oriented individuals to ... PC's. Knowledge
of Palm OS and wireless technologies are a definite asset. You must ...
www.zerogravitywireless.com/NonPDA/careers.htm - 11k |
