Motorola Licenses Spyglass® Internet Technologies for Multi-featured Blackbird™ Digital Set-top Box Platform
Multi-million Dollar Agreement is Largest Television Related Deal in Spyglass History
Naperville, Ill. -- Monday, September 21, 1998 - Spyglass (NASDAQ: SPYG) announced today that Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Semiconductor Products Sector has entered into a multi-million dollar agreement to provide Internet technologies for Motorola's interactive entertainment architecture, code-named 'Blackbird'. It was also announced that Spyglass' Cable and Satellite Television Practice would team with Motorola to assist Blackbird OEM customers in bringing advanced, interactive consumer services into the home. For Spyglass, it is the largest interactive-television related deal since the company launched its cable and satellite television practice at the end of 1997.
Motorola licensed a custom television version of Spyglass Device Mosaic, the industry's first full-featured, small footprint browser, and Spyglass MicroServer, a small footprint Web server used for control and messaging to the set-top box. Both Spyglass products will be bundled with the set-top box platform. Additionally, Motorola entered into comprehensive consulting services agreement where Spyglass will both customize its device technology and help plan, design, and implement value added applications and content delivery services for the platform. Spyglass Device Mosaic will run on Microware's (NASDAQ: MWAR) OS-9000 real-time operating system.
"These next generation digital set-tops will be a significant enhancement for cable operators to offer additional services," said Ray Burgess, vice president and assistant general manager of Motorola's Consumer Systems Group. "Spyglass Internet technology gives our customers the best opportunity to take full advantage of Motorola's hardware design, enabling them to bring a wide variety of new interactive entertainment services to consumers.
"We are also pleased to be allied with Spyglass' TV Consulting Practice which will be assisting our customers in adding their own unique interactive services to this very robust platform," Burgess added.
Specifically, Spyglass will make modifications to Device Mosaic to support the Motorola set-top design's digital television features and requirements, including video-on-demand and will port it to the PowerPC™ platform. To accomplish this, Spyglass will create internal browser functions to support Motorola's VCR-like functionality on MPEG-2 streams via Real Time Streaming Protocol. Spyglass MicroServer will allow Motorola to provide cable companies network management and communications capabilities with set-tops deployed in the field.
"We are very excited about the scope of this deal," said Randy Littleson, vice president and general manager of Spyglass. "As our Internet device technology gets deployed on Motorola's powerful multimedia set-top box platform, we are positioned to help their customers add value on top.
"Motorola SPS is committed to providing a PowerPC-based digital cable solution, rather than just silicon," Littleson added. "As such, they are an ideal partner for Spyglass because we too are focused on providing complete solutions, not just single pieces of technology. Together, Spyglass and Motorola have created a key, customizable platform that makes Internet-based services available to set-top manufacturers and cable operators as an important new source of differentiation and revenue."
Motorola is already a key supplier of silicon components for the set-top box industry.
About Motorola
Motorola is a global leader in software-energized wireless communications, semiconductors, and advanced electronic systems and services. Motorola creates cellular telephone, two-way radio, paging, data and satellite communications systems and products that enable people to take their worlds with them. Motorola's embedded semiconductors are essential digital building blocks for consumer, networking and computing, transportation and wireless communications markets. Other businesses include automotive electronics, components, computing and energy products. Sales in 1997 were $29.8 billion.
About Spyglass
Spyglass (NASDAQ: SPYG) provides Internet expertise, software and services for making devices work with the Web. Particularly active in the cable and satellite television, wireless telecommunications, consumer electronics and office equipment markets, Spyglass solutions are used by market-leading companies including GTE, Sun Microsystems Java Software Division, NEC, Nokia, Thomson Consumer Electronics (RCA) and Xerox. Spyglass headquarters are located at 1240 East Diehl Rd., Naperville, Ill., 60563; phone: 630.245.6512; fax: 630.245.6693; press email inquiries: astokes@spyglass.com; Web site: spyglass.com.
(September 1998)
Spyglass and the Spyglass logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Spyglass, Inc., in the United States and other countries. Other technologies and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. This release contains information about management's future expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors that are discussed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 1997, which is on file with the SEC. |
