"System software companies to merge"
By Stephanie Miles
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
April 16, 1998, 3:55 p.m. PT
Two system software companies, Phoenix
Technologies and Award Software, today
announced they are merging.
The resulting company will be called Phoenix
Technologies, and will have approximately 800
employees. Jack Kay will be president of Phoenix
Technologies, with George Huang reporting to him
as president of the Award Software subsidiary.
The two companies design BIOS, system software
that is coded into a computer's read-only memory
and interacts with its hardware to configure the
system during start-up. While a machine is running,
the operating system and application programs both
directly access BIOS routines to provide better
compatibility for such functions as screen display.
Pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, the
deal should be final by June 30, according to a
prepared statement released by the two companies.
The merger makes sense because the two
companies target complementary markets,
according to the release. Phoenix focuses on
high-end PCs and Internet appliances, while Award
targets the sub-$1,000 PC market and embedded
systems.
The software industry's third major BIOS vendor is
SystemSoft, which primarily provides code for
notebook manufacturers.
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