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Technology Stocks : WavePhore (WAVO)- VBI fed WaveTop for WebTV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TC5187 who wrote (760)	11/11/1997 5:48:00 PM
From: David Gardiner	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2843

DTOP v WAVO story November 10, 1997 Providers of Desktop News Services Plan Merger By Whit Andrews webweek.com:80/current/news/19971110-desktop.html The announcement last week of merger plans by Individual Inc. and Desktop Data Inc. brings the news-to-the-desktop business a step closer to a Coke-and-Pepsi rivalry from the dozen-flavor market it was just a year ago. The deal, expected to close in early 1998, locks high-end client-server stalwart Desktop Data in with Individual, an intranet and Internet upstart. It consolidates a handful of acquisitions Individual has made in the last few years with Desktop's string of positive earnings results and corporate cachet. "We're combining more than just products and services," said Desktop CEO Don McLagan, who will lead the merged entity, tentatively named NewsEdge after Desktop's flagship product. "We're combining company strengths." With the new company, a merger of near-equals that results in a market capitalization at current stock values of about $180 million, they're also building an entity that may be better able to withstand the ongoing heavy consolidation in the news-delivery business. Individual snapped up three companies since 1996, including now-shuttered FreeLoader and Internet veteran ClariNet. The new company's major competitor is WavePhore Inc., which has expanded out of the business of providing hardware and software delivery systems to handing out content as well via its NewsCast product, which has challenged Desktop Data as intranets simplify the delivery process. WavePhore is also a Desktop supplier, providing the company with airwave delivery of real-time news feeds for some companies. And news suppliers to both companies, such as Dow Jones and Reuters, also compete with them on some level. Desktop Data and Individual are still hammering out their planned product line, the company executives said. But together they can offer products to much of the business- information vertical market, from a free advertising-supported feed to a full-price line of NewsObjects, intended for insertion in Windows and Java applications. Still missing, however, are the hardware and network strengths that WavePhore offers and a consumer product, which WavePhore's WaveTop division intends to roll out over TV airwaves this fall. WavePhore, on the other hand, lacks the low-end services for businesses that Individual has provided.