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[POINTCAST SET TO BE SWALLOWED BY NEWS CORP. - 3/21/97]
TipWorld - http://www.tipworld.com
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Proudly presents:
Don Crabb: Crustacean-at-Large
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POINTCAST SET TO BE SWALLOWED BY NEWS CORP.
Pointcast Inc, the online news push technology startup that has
practically defined the category, is about to be bought by Rubert
Murcoch's giant News Corp. -- so say Pointcast insiders in a
conversation this week with your Carapacious Reporter.
Pointcast, of course, delivers news directly to your desktop, via a
screen saver and other software, that has been drawn from the news
sources that Pointcast has licensed. The software, available for both
Windows and PowerMac platforms, is free, being supported by the ads
that blast out along with the news on your screen.
Although it has been reported elsewhere that the chances for the News
Corp. buyout are only about 50% (the deal is currently hung-up over
money, naturally), Crusty's sources say they'd "be surprised if we
don't conclude this thing, because the News Corp. offer is coin fo the
realm, and are planned IPO is not."
Your Watery Wayfarer's Pointcast pals tell him that News Corp.'s first
offer of about $400 million has been upped to $500 million, but
Pointcast's management thinks they can get News Corp. to "dramatically
sweeten the offer. After all, we have what they want -- an online news
strategy -- and it will cost them a boatload more to try to bootstrap
their own push technology," says Crusty's Pointcast wonks.
Check out these URLs for more info about Pointcast:
Pointcast Opens its Broadcast Network to Web Publishers
http://www.pcworld.com/news/daily/data/0397/970313110547.html
Offline Readers and Browsers, (from the April, 1997 issue)
http://www.pcworld.com/software/internet_www/articles/apr97/1504p110b.
html
Pushing and Shoving: Webcasting Products Jostle for Position
http://www.pcworld.com/news/daily/data/0397/970314185042.html
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