****Spyglass Shares Spike On Huge Motorola Pact
Newsbytes - August 17, 1998 17:20
%ONLINE %MSP SPYG MOT V%NEWSBYTES P%NBYT
NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1998 AUG 17 (NB) -- By Bob Woods, Newsbytes. Shares of Spyglass Inc. [NASDAQ:SPYG] unofficially closed up almost 14 percent on Monday, after the company said it had signed a big interactive media platform contract with Motorola Inc. [NYSE:MOT]. A Spyglass spokesperson confirmed the deal's details to Newsbytes Monday afternoon.
Spyglass unofficially closed up $1.375 or 13.92 percent at $11.25. The 1.8 million shares bought and sold during the day easily exceeded the 30-day average of 275,000 shares.
Spyglass characterized the Motorola deal as the "largest" device related pact the company has ever made -- an especially important contract, considering the company shifted its efforts to the Internet device market in December 1996.
While specifics were not immediately released about the pact, Spyglass said the agreement would bring the company millions of dollars in ongoing royalties, and would involve a multimedia platform for both Internet-based and over-the-air content.
While Spyglass is keeping mum about the project, the company did say that it has already seen some revenue from the pact, which began last June. What's more, Spyglass hopes that the company will ink more business from Motorola in other areas.
Spyglass and Motorola will make an announcement regarding the deal sometime this quarter, the Spyglass spokesperson said. Spyglass is waiting to announce the specifics, because Motorola wants to handle the actual announcement, she added.
Spyglass made reference to the Motorola deal in a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the filing, the Spyglass/Motorola deal is described as non-exclusive in nature, and includes source code and documentation for Spyglass Device Mosaic Version 3.0, Spyglass ThinGUI Version 1.0 and Spyglass MicroServer Version 2.0 for various operating system environments.
In that same filing, Spyglass revealed that it expects to incur about $250,000 in future expenses in making all of its systems Year 2000 compliant. The company's Year 2000 task force has determined that all of its currently sold products and technologies are Y2K compliant.
Spyglass' recent history has been marked by changes. In late 1996, the company announced it would shift its focus from a Web browser concern to an Internet World Wide Web device firm (Newsbytes, Dec. 2, 1996). Spyglass' bottom line took a hit after that, as it worked to create revenue streams from a market that was in its infancy.
Then earlier this year, Spyglass product marketing manager Paul Chapple told Newsbytes that that the company's move from a standard Web browser company to a Web browser device company is "starting to show some growth." He said the company "fully expects" to meet analysts' expectations to be in the black in the company's fourth fiscal quarter (Newsbytes, Feb. 17, 1998).
At the end of February, Spyglass announced a reorganization where it would form four separate business units: SurfWatch, Los Gatos, Naperville, and Cambridge (Newsbytes, Feb. 25, 1998). The SurfWatch unit will focus on the Internet content filtering market, while Spyglass' Los Gatos unit, which consists primarily of recent Spyglass acquiree AllPen Software, will concentrate on creating embedded Internet applications which enable non-PC devices to work with the Web.
Spyglass' Naperville unit, named after the suburban Chicago town where Spyglass' world headquarters is located, will concentrate on creating infrastructure solutions which support the telecommunications, wireless, advanced television and office equipment markets. The Cambridge unit, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will focus on creating embedded Internet solutions with specific emphasis on the cable television, handheld computer and industrial controls markets.
Spyglass' Web site is at spyglass.com on the Web.
Reported By Newsbytes News Network: newsbytes.com .
15:44 CST
(19980817/Press Contacts: Amanda Stokes, Spyglass, 630-245-6512 /WIRES ONLINE, BUSINESS/)
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