To thread- anyone interested in Macromedia (MACR) -
Will break old high of 50 tomorrow. News out this AM-
Closed at high on Friday, up more than 4 points to 49 1/2.
Also, RE:institutional investing- Message 9662082
News from zdii.com
____________________________
Sunday, May 23, 1999
Macromedia forms consumer entertainment business
May 24, 1999 12:03am
Reuters
By Therese Poletti
SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 (Reuters) - Macromedia Inc.<MACR.O>, a software company mostly known as the creator of software tools for Web developers, is branching out into the consumer arena with a new business unit and a Web-based entertainment center.
The company hopes that the vast community who uses its software products -- Shockwave and Flash -- to download animation over the Internet, will also go to its entertainment Web site, shockwave.com, and share cartoons, games and popular television and movie characters with family and friends.
The new business, called shockwave.com, will be headed by a former Disney & Co.<DIS.N> executive Stephen Fields and will be completely separate from Macromedia, including its financials, paving the way for a possible initial public offering.
"I wanted to separate it because of cultural issues," Rob Burgess, Macromedia chairman and chief executive, said in an interview. "It is an entertainment business and it really has different dynamics than a software company."
The new business unit will be based in different offices, but within walking distance of Macromedia's South of Market headquarters in San Francisco's Multimedia Gultch district.
At the heart of the new business is an entertainment center on the Web called shockwave.com, with a personalized Web site to be launched sometime this summer, and two devices, the Shockwave Remote and the Shockmachine, a virtual entertainment console, for playing games, cartoons, music, movie previews and creating personalized content.
The Shockmachine will cost $19.99, but the Shockwave Remote, an easy-to-use interface that is like a remote control, is free. It lets a user save up to five favorite games or pieces of content to access easily or play offline.
Seamus McAteer, an analyst with Jupiter Communications in New York, said he does not believe Macromedia should charge for the Shockmachine, adding that this is the only flaw in the company's strategy.
"Charging for this thing is a misstep and, hopefully, a minor misstep they will change in short order," McAteer said.
The venture will be announced on Monday with about 12 partners, ranging from content companies like Comedy Central and its "South Park" cartoon characters, Marvel Comics and its "Spider Man" comics and United Media and its "Dilbert" characters to technology companies such as LookSmart for its search engine and Mpath Interactive Inc.<MPTH.O>, an online gaming company.
Consumers of all ages can play games like Real Pool from 3D Groove, a three-dimensional pool game, create their own animated online greeting cards with familiar characters, watch movie clips, and even save everything to a hard drive without having to download the content again, if the media company agrees. Some firms may charge minimal fees for their content.
"The first two years I was here was about developing the software to create the next level of content," said Burgess, who joined the company from Silicon Graphics Inc. about two years ago, where he was a senior vice president and president of Alias/Wavefront, a software subsidiary of SGI. "It's the next logical step for Macromedia."
Macromedia is banking on the popularity of its Shockwave and Flash animation players, which it says are used by more than 100 million Internet users, to create a community for shockwave.com.
Users download the Shockwave Player so that they can view multimedia content created in Macromedia's Director software and the Flash Player to view animations built with the Macromedia Flash tool. Initially Macromedia will point users to shockwave.com, and eventually launch a consumer ad campaign.
"They hope to do for animated content what Real (Networks) has done for video," McAteer of J
Source: Reuters
|
