Ibexx & all,
The news on Microsoft's buyout of Firefly has been leaked
before April 7. Here is some discussion on what Microsfot
is going to do with Firefly --- a good and positive
appreciation of Firefly's core technology.
Microsoft to buy Firefly
By Maria Seminerio, ZDNN, and Jim Kerstetter, PC
Week Online
April 7, 1998 4:07 PM PDT
www5.zdnet.com
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is in the final
stages of negotiations to acquire Internet
personalization specialist Firefly Network
Inc., sources said.
The deal is expected to be announced within
the next week, sources close to the situation
said. Sources did not know the specific terms
of the deal or the fate of Firefly's
approximately 70 employees, should the
acquisition go through.
Firefly officials in Cambridge, Mass., would
say only that they do not comment on
rumors. Microsoft officials in Redmond,
Wash., could not be reached for comment.
Firefly makes a suite of products based on
Passport, a client electronic identification
tag that allows users to specify their interests
and information they would like to receive.
With that data, Firefly's server-side
software can customize Web site data for
that particular user.
Firefly was one of the first companies to
deliver on personalization technologies for
Web sites and has been a key proponent of
Internet privacy standards.
But in recent months, criticism of the Web
pioneer has grown as it became clear that,
outside of a few marquis customers, Firefly
has received more attention than business.
"Firefly came out with a flying head start
over all its rivals," said Peter Krasilovsky, an
analyst with Arlen Communications, in
Bethesda, Md. It quickly gained 1 million
users for its free client software, but then
squandered its lead by failing to provide a
neat integration with existing brands,
Krasilovsky said.
Firefly, he added, fills a Microsoft need.
"Microsoft has always said they've had
hundreds of people working on
personalization tools, but somehow it never
really came together for them," Krasilovsky
said. Taking over Firefly would "gel
beautifully" with the company's strategy, he
added.
Sources indicated that Microsoft is not
interested in Firefly's products as much as
its core technologies, which allow a server to
generate personalized information on the fly,
protect consumer privacy and more readily
share information between Web sites.
The technologies provide two fundamental
features: user profiling, which serves up data
for individual users, and collaborative
filtering, which allows for the sharing of
data.
Should the deal go through, Microsoft would
likely integrate the Passports with Internet
Explorer, while the server-side technology
would likely be integrated with Microsoft's
Site Server and Site Server Commerce
Edition software, sources said. Microsoft can
also use Firefly's profiling tools to promote
its own products on its Web site.
Firefly has played an integral role in two
standards initiatives. The first, the Open
Profiling Standard, is designed to specify and
automate user privacy on a Web site. It is
now under consideration by the World Wide
Web Consortium.
The second, the Information and Content
Exchange specification, defines how
companies can seamlessly tie together
information from their Web sites. It is still
in draft stage.
Firefly has pulled together more than $20
million in venture capital and several
high-profile customers such as
BarnesandNoble.com Inc. After that,
however, the profile of Firefly's stable of two
dozen customers drops.
While Microsoft could certainly develop
Web personalization and privacy tools such
as Firefly's on its own, buying Firefly gives it
instant access to a solution that's already
proved popular, said Tim Sloane, an analyst
at Aberdeen Group, in Boston.
The takeover would make sense, Sloane said,
because "in general, that market needs the
stamp of a large vendor to move forward."
Firefly was founded by alumni of the MIT
Media Lab and originally called Agents Inc.
It was renamed Firefly Network nearly two
years ago. |
