Austin and All,
The Yahoo board (forgive me I have sinned) is aflame with end-of-the-world scenarios concerning the MSFT/QCOM wireless launch. I dont get it. Correct me if I am wrong, but isnt the MagicTalk VUI the technology which will take GMGC to the dance? No VUI was mentioned in the release and from the indications I read from the BellSouth release, they are free to add what services they want on top of the platform?
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Also this announcement from yesterday:
Monday November 9, 10:05 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Charles Schwab Corporation
Schwab and Intuit Alliance With Excite to Provide 'Best Of' Investment Education and Service Across the Web
Leading Unbiased Investment Educators to Reach Millions of New Investors Through Excite
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Three leading companies today announced a new alliance to bring even more comprehensive investment information potentially to millions of online users. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., (NYSE: SCH - news) the nation's largest provider of online investing services, announced today a ground-breaking alliance with Intuit and Excite (Nasdaq: XCIT - news) to offer investment education on Excite's Money and Investing Channel programmed by Intuit's Quicken.com. The alliance is the first time the two leading-branded providers of unbiased investment education have joined forces to create a deep investment education, research and analysis experience on the Web that could reach millions of new investors. This new content is anticipated to appear in December 1998. Terms of the alliance are not disclosed.
This unique Internet alliance will showcase innovative investment tools to empower millions of investors who take personal control of their investments. Excite consumers will soon be able to find Schwab's unbiased investment content on the Money and Investing Channel, expanding the company's leading financial information site. Schwab considers this a technology alliance, as the company plans to enhance its customer experience at Schwab.com with Excite's personalization capabilities and information, and information from Intuit's leading online finance site, Quicken.com.
''The Internet gives us the ability to educate more investors to give them control over their own financial future,'' stated David S. Pottruck, President and Co-CEO of The Charles Schwab Corporation. ''If financial companies look at the Internet as a competitor, and try to hoard information or not make it available in its electronic form, then this way of distributing services will drown them. We are entering a new era of investment education where the consumer demands more control and access to information.''
''We view this relationship as a win-win for all of the parties involved, especially for consumers,'' stated Brooks Fisher, Vice President and General Manager for Community and Marketspaces, Quicken.com. ''We couldn't ask for a better resource than Schwab to provide additional investment content to enhance the Quicken.com programming on Excite's Money and Investing channel. This will create an even richer reserve for consumers to research their personal finance needs.''
''Personal finance is one of the hottest topics for people getting online,'' said George Bell, CEO, Excite, Inc. ''By naming Charles Schwab the premiere brokerage firm on parts of Excite's Money and Investing Channel, we continue to increase the depth of our personal finance and investment offerings, helping consumers invest wisely. This unique and powerful alliance will provide the 'best of breed' in finance information and services for millions of Excite users, as well as providing Excite with significant brand extension opportunities in the financial arena through a diversified marketing relationship with Charles Schwab.''
About Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., serves two million active online accounts with $131 billion in online assets. Schwab provides a full-service investing experience to customers through a multi-dimensional offering of the Internet, 280 branch offices, speech recognition and touch-tone telephone technologies, multilingual and international technologies, and direct access to professionals around-the-clock. Schwab online investors transact over $4 billion in securities through www.schwab.com each week -- making Schwab one of the largest e.commerce businesses. Schwab has won numerous awards for its leadership in technology, including the Gartner Group's 1997 Excellence in Technology Award, the Global Information Infrastructure Award for Top Commerce site, and the CIO 100 Award. Schwab has been a pioneer in online investing and customer technologies for 14 years. Member SIPC/NYSE.
About Quicken.com
Quicken.com quicken.com, a leading online finance site, brings together tools, resources and expertise to help empower consumers to make confident investment and financial choices. Once consumers have determined their financial needs, Quicken.com can help them reach a solution for all areas of personal finance management, including investments, insurance, tax and mortgage. All of which is available for FREE. Quicken.com is competitive with Microsoft Investor and Yahoo! Finance. Quicken.com content is also distributed through America Online and Excite.
About Intuit
Intuit, Inc., a financial software and Web-based services company, develops and markets Quicken(R), the leading personal finance software; TurboTax(R), the best-selling tax preparation software; and QuickBooks(R), the most popular small business accounting software. Intuit's Quicken.com Web site offers a complete set of personal finance news, information and tools, including retirement planning resources and the leading mutual fund and insurance sites.
About Excite, Inc.
Excite, Inc. is a global media company that attracts over 17 million unique consumers monthly to its flagship portal services, excite.com and webcrawler.com, and specializes in the delivery of highly targeted marketing solutions through its subsidiary MatchLogic, Inc. The Excite brand is now recognized by more than 50 million Americans, and the company is recognized as the fastest growing portal site by Web standard Media Matrix (7/98). Excite personalized services are available in nine countries; the company has joint ventures with Itochu for Excite Japan, Liberty One for Excite Australia and a pending joint venture with Telecom Italia for Excite Italy. Excite, Inc., founded in 1994, is based in Redwood City, California. For more investor information on Excite, please call our shareholder services hotline at 888-924-XCIT (9248). (Unique user and brand recognition statistics quoted are from, respectively: Relevant Knowledge, Opinion Research Corp
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stephen |
