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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (12449)	2/5/1998 10:20:00 AM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Netscape in Talks to Sell All or Part of Company to IBM, Others Mountain View, California, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Netscape Communications Corp., facing a withering attack from rival Microsoft Corp. in the Internet-software market, is considering a number of options to boost the value of its sagging shares. Netscape shares rose as much as 21 percent in trading after the close of the Nasdaq Stock Market after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is in talks to sell all or part of itself to International Business Machines Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Corp. and America Online Inc. Netscape shares climbed as much as 4 1/8 to 23 3/8 after rising 6 percent yesterday on speculation that Sun would buy it. People familiar with the situation confirmed that Netscape has been in talks with the other technology companies for months, and that the negotiations have heated up recently as Netscape lost money and surrendered share of the Internet-browser market to Microsoft. No agreement is imminent, the people said. Officials at Netscape, Sun, America Online and Oracle declined to comment on the talks. An IBM spokesman couldn't be reached immediately for comment. The talks show how dire the situation is for Netscape. The pioneering Internet company has been losing market share to much- larger rival Microsoft, which is using its dominance of the personal-computer software market to unseat Netscape as the pre- eminent provider of Internet software. Netscape two weeks ago said it will stop charging for its Internet browser products in an effort to stem a loss of market share to Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which gives away its competing Internet Explorer browser. Netscape, which pioneered the browser market, has seen its market share decline to about 58 percent in the face of the onslaught from Microsoft, from 73 percent at the end of 1996, according to market researcher Dataquest. The Mountain View, California-based company last week said it had a fourth-quarter loss of $20.8 million, or 22 cents a share, before charges, in the fourth quarter, compared with net income of $8.16 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier. o~~~ O