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IBM will own half of a new visual-effects studio called Digital Domain that will develop new movie techniques and, in time, entertainment software. Three men who worked on 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day,' executive Steve Ross, writer/director/producer James Cameron and special effects maven Stan Winston, will own the rest of the company and run day-to-day operations. Ross will be chief executive officer. The studio will help moviemakers, TV producers, advertisers and others who want to use exotic special effects such as 'morphing' in their films. Digital Domain will also aim to develop interactive entertainment and educational software. IBM is talking with other entertainment-related companies, including Blockbuster Entertainment Corp, about possible ventures. The beleaguered computer giant hopes that successes in multimedia will restore its financial fortunes.

Fifteen Canadian and US cellular telephone service providers announce an agreement to set standards for service and offer service across the two countries. The new MobiLink service comprises the cellular affiliates of Alltel Corp; Centel Corp; BellSouth Corp; Cellular Inc; Bell Atlantic Corp; Ameritech Corp; Century Telephone Enterprises Inc; GTE Corp; Nynex Corp; Southern New England Telecommunications Corp; U S West Inc; Pacific Telesis; Rochester Telephone Corp; and Mobility Canada, an alliance of 12 Canadian cellular firms. All carriers are affiliates of local phone companies. MobiLink will compete against the Cellular One North American alliance, led by Southwestern Bell Corp and McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.

Nolan Bushnell, who invented Pong, the first commercially successful computer game, and later founded video-game manufacturer Atari Corp, is the chairman of a small start-up company in San Diego, CA, called Octus Inc that plans to unveil its first major software package in early Feb 1993 and begin selling it in 2nd qtr 1993. The Octus software will allow co-workers to exchange on-screen messages about phone calls, transfer calls via computer, pass calls to voice-mail systems and perform other functions. The software will be sold by makers and vendors of telecommunications and computing hardware to corporations with moderate to heavy telephone traffic. Bushnell, while reticent on the prospects for his firm's software, says the new market for products that link computers to telephone systems will be worth billions of dollars within a few years. A Jan 1993 initial public offering raised about $12 million for Octus, Bushnell says.

Bell Atlantic Corp signs an unprecedented 10-year agreement with FutureVision of America Corp, a start-up based in Downingtown, PA. FutureVision will transmit programming and other video services over fiber-optic phone lines provided by Bell Atlantic. The contract marks the first time a regional Bell operating company has joined with a cable service to offer telephone customers an alternative to their cable TV service. The fully interactive Bell Atlantic/FutureVision system in Toms River, NJ, will compete against that city's sole cable company, Adelphia Cable Communications Corp. Cable operators and telephone companies have been weighing opportunities to enter each other's business. Current government regulations bar Bell phone companies from owning more than 5 percent of a video programmer.

Compaq founder, ex-chairman and ex-CEO Joseph R. Canion forms Insource Management Group, a Houston, TX-based consulting company that will offer management consulting, systems integration and technology advice. Canion was forced to resign from his position at Compaq in Oct 1991 after Compaq suffered its first quarterly losses and layoffs. James Harris, a Compaq co-founder who voluntarily left the company when Canion was fired, is also a co-founding Insource. Both Canion and Harris have invested $500,000 in the new company. Ex-Electronic Data Systems Corp and Perot Systems Corp executive Ronald L. Fischer has been named Insource's president and CEO. Computer users are disoriented by the number of products and the rate of technological change, according to Canion. Insource will provide a complete consulting package on buying and networking computers as well as managing a business.

Apple and IBM select A. Nathaniel Goldhaber to lead Kaleida Inc, their joint venture in multimedia computing. Goldhaber is a venture capitalist from California with a background of diverse and unconventional occupations. He took the Kalieda position only after repeated assurances from Apple and IBM executives that the company would be largely autonomous and relatively free from intrusion by either parent company. Kaleida will open in Jul 1992 in California's Silicon Valley with 30 employees. The new company hopes to set the industry standards for multimedia, a technology which may or may not revolutionize the consumer electronics marketplace. Kaleida will first develop its Script-X computer language and market it as the foundation of multimedia software. The Kaleida board consists of Goldhaber and two representatives each from Apple and IBM.

Momenta Corp, a fledgling computer venture, introduces its first portable computer that uses pen-based technology. The $5,000, 6-pound electronic notepad recognizes handwriting and doubles as a conventional portable computer. It will be shipped in Nov 1991. The Momenta notepad, which faces competition from Tandy Corp, NCR Corp and IBM products, is unique because it is bundled with software and applications new users need. It also comes with a keyboard because Momenta views the pen as a companion to the keyboard rather than a replacement for it. Momenta hopes to attract people who do not currently use computers. The company's backers have invested $30 million in the start-up, and its managers includes veteran computer executives from Atari Corp, Zenith Datasystems Inc and Cirrus Logic Inc.

Apple and IBM announce their new partnership, but questions linger about how they will develop products and whether other companies will accept their efforts as standards. The two computer manufacturers aim to boost their influence in the microcomputer market and decrease Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp's industry dominance over hardware and software. In recent years, IBM has been dependent on both competitors for supplies; Apple has paved its own road, but has been pressured to increase uniformity in its products. IBM and Apple did not name a top manager for Taligent, the new company formed to battle Microsoft in system software. The two companies did promise to make their products available to competitors in an effort to promote them as commercial standards, but they were vague about how they would reach this goal. The joint venture must still be approved by the US Federal Trade Commission.

Fujitsu Ltd will invest $40.2 million in Hal Computer Systems Inc, a start-up computer manufacturer begun by Andy Heller, the well-known computer industry personality. Heller's company will make computers that range from workstations to superminicomputers. The machines will use Sun Microsystems' SPARC processors and will run UNIX. According to Heller, Hal Computer will use its own faster version of the SPARC chip and will include software features to simplify UNIX for data processing managers. Even so, Heller's company faces a problematic future: the cost of money is high, and the hardware markets are saturated.

Sony Corp has created a unit called Sony Electronic Publishing. The unit, which will be part of Sony Software Corp, will create and distribute software for use with microcomputers and other electronic hardware. Sony Electronic Publishing aims to take advantage of the products produced by Sony's record and movie companies. It will also create software for the Sony Data Discman, a portable compact disk player that can store databases such as books and dictionaries. Olaf Olafsson, a Sony vice president for special projects, has been named the president of the new unit.

DEC agrees to invest $230 million to form a new company with the computer division of Mannesmann AG of Germany. The investment is the largest ever by DEC, and will give the firm a strong presence in Europe's largest computer market as well as placing it in a good position to work within Eastern Europe. DEC will own 65 percent of the new company, called Digital-Kienzle Computer Systeme GmbH, and Mannesmann will own the other 35 percent. Mannesmann Kienzle Computer Systemes employs 3,900 and is the second largest domestic computer supplier in Germany. Analysts say the deal is one of the first examples of an American company acquiring an established European computer firm.

Siemens AG of Germany acquires Stromberg-Carlson Corp of Lake Mary, FL, and forms the third-largest telecommunications equipment company in North America. The merger between Stromberg-Carlson and the US operations of Siemens will give Siemens a stronger position in the competitive, $6 billion US market. AT and T and Northern Telecom Ltd control 80 percent of the telephone switching equipment industry in North America. The new company, called Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, will have 4,000 employees and an expected annual revenue of between $400 million and $500 million. Analysts estimate the company's market share will be around 7.5 percent.

There is increasing interest in massive parallel processing, an approach to computer design that promises vast performance improvements at lowered costs. More than a dozen start-up companies are committed to the market, and major computer companies, too, are involved. The technique employs many small processors working together on many parts of a problem simultaneously. There are few commercial uses so far, and industry observers expect that many companies will fail as companies scramble for a market. Two companies already look successful: Thinking Machines Inc, of Cambridge, MA, expects revenue of $60 million in 1990 and is expanding beyond its government and defense-related businesses into commercial areas; and Teradata Corp, of Los Angeles, builds large database computers for commercial markets.

Xerox Corporation, through its Xerox Technology Ventures venture-capital arm, has created a new company called PixelCraft to market the 7650 Pro Imager scanner. The new firm has also been chartered […]

India Nationals' Mastech Fastest Growing Firm 01/05/93 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1993 JAN 5 (NB) -- Two pals, Ashok Trivedi and Sunil Wadhwani, president and chairman of the Pittsburgh-based Mastech Corporation […]

New Firm Develops Holographic Data Storage 11/12/92 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1992 NOV 12 (NB) -- The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), has announced the formation of a new company […]