New AltaVista CEO Touts
Content, Commerce
(01/27/99, 11:44 a.m. ET)
By Joe Wilcox and Amy Rogers, Computer Reseller News
Compaq said Tuesday that it would spin off its
AltaVista search engine as a separate company. CRN
section editor Joe Wilcox and senior editor Amy
Rogers spoke with Rod Schrock, president and CEO
of AltaVista Co., based in Palo Alto, Calif., about the
new company and a future public offering.
How do you plan to leverage your success on
the consumer side into this new responsibility?
My experience is building things from the ground
up. I actually participated in starting Compaq's server
and enterprise computing business, then went to a new
spectrum by running our consumer-products business.
That's my forte, learning new markets. I've been
learning the Internet space for the past year. My skill is
delivering great products and services to customers.
Do you see a meeting of your experiences in the
consumer and commercial markets?
Certainly, we're going to provide an avenue, even
in a corporate environment, to gain the most immediate
access to information on the Internet. AltaVista is
actually more utilized by commercial customers in the
corporate world than in the consumer space. We
expect to provide that service to be customizable, not
just so you can get general information, but information
on a specific industry, specific discipline, as part of
AltaVista.
Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer said Compaq
would introduce Internet keyboards on commercial
systems. What impact do you expect this on have
corporate users and VARs?
We clearly have discovered a very powerful way
for users to get to Internet sites of choice with our
Internet keyboard. We intend to offer that capability to
our commercial customers, as well, but with one distinct
added benefit. We're going to make sure the [Internet]
buttons are programmable by one department or central
IT office. They can direct those buttons to internal
intranet sites if they want to or they can direct them to
sites like AltaVista.
Do you see any direct impact on VARs?
I don't really see an impact on VARs. If anything,
we have a strategy of including our resellers, VARs,
and retailers in all of our e-commerce activities. For
example, on our consumer side, if you buy a product
from Best Buy, we're going to offer aggressive
e-commerce links to Best Buy so they can continue to
buy from Best Buy. So I think it is going to be a
continual positive for retailers and resellers.
What about VARs programming the keyboard to
their e-commerce sites or your providing e-commerce
support to them through AltaVista?
We'll be working those partnership strategies
over time. We know how to ensure that our resellers
and VARs will be included. We will be developing
those strategies and unveiling them throughout the year.
Could you comment on the possible synergy
between the Shopping.com acquisition and AltaVista?
The acquisition of Shopping.com is still pending,
but it is our clear intent for the two to be seamlessly
integrated together. In fact, if we gain approval for the
acquisition of Shopping.com, it's likely, and it is our
intent, to fold them together.
We really want to be a destination site for both content
or information and e-commerce. And that's what
Shopping.com allows us to do. We're going to evolve
shopping.com beyond being an individual retailer. We
will allow comparison shopping across sites, including
our resellers and retailers, again, as an example.
Are there any other pieces of the puzzle you
need to buy or build to flush out this destination site?
We're filling in our e-commerce areas, with
Shopping.com as an initial step. We're filling in our
communications and community requirements with our
technology sharing agreements with Microsoft.
The next area of strategic partnership is in the area of
information, content and entertainment media. And
there, you should expect we'll continue to partner and
make public our partnerships in that arena. Once we've
done that, the three main areas -- content,
communications and commerce -- will be covered for
AltaVista.
It's well-known you have spoken with Time
Warner and other content providers already. Do you
have a timetable for announcing more deals?
We're already partnering with them on the
content side. If you are a Compaq Presario user, you
would use our My AltaVista personalized service and
you would see TimeWarner content there today.
Now, how far do we take it? Do we turn it into a
strategic partnership and potentially equity partnerships
with AltaVista? Those are certainly areas we were
exploring, but we're not prepared to make the
announcement at this time.
When do you expect the spin-off of AltaVista to
be complete?
We haven't set a specific time frame, but certainly
it will depend on our ability to demonstrate to potential
public shareholders that we can pull things together and
deliver a great service. But we tend to do that very
aggressively, and I think the IPO could happen
sometime this year.
Your consumer and small-business groups work
very closely together. What kind of impact does the
spin-off have on the small-business arena?
It's a natural for us to offer our Internet
keyboards and our AltaVista service for small
businesses. Because they need and are openly looking
for ways to access the Internet and take advantage of
the Internet much more easily. So it's a natural for us to
extend our whole strategy from consumer up to the
small- and medium-business environment.
Do you see the strategy extending up even
further?
Like I said, the big bulk of users of AltaVista, and
most Internet sites, are still occurring in a business
environment.
Pfeiffer spoke of the Internet becoming a $170
billion business by 2002 and bigger than the whole
computer industry today. How important do you see
AltaVista as generating revenue for Compaq?
It is our intention to be a large-scale revenue
business, hopefully in the multiple billions of dollars
somewhere in the early part of the next decade. So I
think it is going to be an important revenue generator for
Compaq and certainly a big growth area. It will
certainly have to be developed, particularly in the first
two to four years, but after that, it's really going to take
off.
Is there one message you would like to convey
to the channel about this announcement?
This shows Compaq's commitment to being a
long-term player in the Internet. It means it is a
powerful, leveragable property we can, over time, build
as success for our resellers.
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