Month: June 1999 (Page 3 of 7)

Lernout & Hauspie announced it purchased all the stock of the Brussels Translation Group (BTG), a private organization that invested in the development of L&H’s iTranslator services, a family of Internet and Intranet translation solutions. L&H’s iTranslator allows fast translation over the Internet and Intranet using a combination of computer programs and human post editing in a multitude of language pairs (currently 14). The purchase, made for approximately $42 million in cash and the assumption of $17 million in debt, will enable L&H to capture all revenues and profits from the sales of L&H iTranslator. L&H expects the transaction to be dilutive for 1999 and accretive in the year 2000. L&H does not anticipate any write-off of in process research & development. L&H announced in March of this year availability of the L&H iTranslator to ISPs, portals and over corporate Intranets. The new L&H iTranslator offerings leverage the Internet’s fast, simple delivery and communications capabilities to provide more easily accessible, affordable translation to a broader range of users than those who have traditionally purchased L&H translation services. www.lhsl.com.

Miva Corporation announced that it has signed site license agreements with Verio, SimpleNet and OLM. The arrangement enables each hosting company’s’ Web servers with Miva Empresa, an application engine designed to empower individual users with Miva Script for the creation and deployment of e-commerce applications and data-driven Web sites. Miva Script is a server-side, XML-based scripting language. Miva Script allows individuals to create and deploy commerce applications, data-driven Web sites and corporate Intranet applications. The scripting language gives Web hosting customers access to advanced commerce and database features in a familiar environment that consists of HTML-like tags. Because Miva Script uses tag-based syntax in the active document, HTML users can easily build cross platform, active, server-side applications without the burden of in-depth training and support. All Miva application products are written in Miva Script. The function-orientated Miva Script language has been defined using an XML DTD and implements programming features, database access, Internet protocol integration and commerce processing interfaces. www.miva.com, www.verio.com, www.simplenet.com, www.olm.com

Online System Services, Inc. announced it will change its name to Webb Interactive Services, Inc. The name change is subject to approval by the company’s shareholders at the annual shareholder meeting set for early August. The company also announced the appointment of Perry Evans, founder of recently acquired netIgnite, as President of the newly combined organization. The new name and organizational changes reflect the complete integration of netIgnite, a start-up company acquired by Online System Services in March 1999. netIgnite has been developing an XML-based commerce-publishing platform, focused on next generation approaches to local online advertising and e-commerce. www.webb.net

STEP GmbH is pleased to announce the formation of a new company based in the UK. The company will be based in Swindon and starts operations on July 1, 1999. The name of the new company has not yet been finally decided, but it will reflect the fact that all the employees of the new STEP company come from the former DPSL (Database Publishing Systems Limited). STEP deeply regrets that DPSL has ceased business due to unfortunate circumstances and been forced to lay off all its staff. For many years DPSL has been the UK center of excellence in the SGML/XML industry, and the UK STEP operation intents to take over this mantle. Its core business will be SGML/XML based consulting, DTD design, software services and system integration, as well as providing services, training and support for all major SGML/XML tools and last but not least being a premium SigmaLink service provider. The highly skilled and experienced personnel will be able to deliver services tothe market from day 1, since it is an existing team since years that enjoys great esteem in the market. The STEP Group is proud to have won the confidence of the former DPSL employees and to have become what is probably Europe’s largest player in the SGML/XML area, with over 90 employees. As part of Bertelsmann Industrial Services the STEP Group has a strong backbone for long-term business relationships with its customers. www.step.de

Extensibility announced the release of XML Authority 1.0, a comprehensive XML schema authoring and conversion tool that enables Web developers to migrate existing data structures to the Internet via XML. This capability accelerates the creation of XML-based industry, corporate and application grammars for the Internet. XML Authority 1.0 converts ODBC data structures, Java classes, COM objects, LDAP schemas, DTD’s and XML documents to all major XML schema formats. XML schema syntax output support includes DTD’s, XML-Data (IE5 level), the XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL), DCD’s, and DDML. XML Authority 1.0 features a graphical user interface that allows users to import or create XML schemas, and view document elements, attributes, entities and other objects in a hierarchical tree. Graphical representation of the document structure also is provided. Collaborative schema development, within and between organizations is enhanced with audience-specific notes and change logging support. XML Authority facilitates the convergence of diverse forms and sources of Internet content. Advanced XML schema features, such as data-typing, enable data-intensive applications to move to XML now. XML Authority provides the ability to adapt SGML DTD’s to those constructs available in XML. XML Authority 1.0 is available for downloading now at www.extensibility.com. XML Authority is $99.95, multiple user x-Packs are available: 5-user, $449.95; 10-user, $849.95; 50-user, $3,995.00. A ten use trial version may also be downloaded from the Extensibility site.

Bluestone Software, Inc. has launched Code Blue, a developer program that gives Java, Web, and XML application developers no-initial-cost access to Bluestone’s Application Server frameworks for building Internet commerce and data integration applications. Beginning today, developers can register for Code Blue online at www.bluestone.com/code-blue/. The Code Blue program encompasses all Bluestone products, including Sapphire/Web, and Bluestone XML Suite, the company’s revolutionary dynamic XML Application Server and toolkit that provides a platform for building, distributing, and deploying XML applications. www.bluestone.com

Lotus Development Corp. introduced SmartSuite Millennium Edition Release 9.5. Key attributes of this version of the SmartSuite Millennium Edition desktop suite include innovations in integrated speech recognition, collaborative Internet functionality that leverages Lotus Notes Release 5, updated file compatibility, integration with Lotus Domino, and time-saving deployment technology in one comprehensive package. SmartSuite Millennium Edition 9.5 is currently shipping in North America in International English to Lotus maintenance and volume-licensed Passport customers and is expected to be available in stores in the U.S. as well as worldwide later this month. SmartSuite Millennium Edition 9.5 is also scheduled to ship in additional language versions including Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish within 30 days, and Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish within 60 days of the International English version. Current users of SmartSuite, or individual Lotus desktop applications, or users of qualifying competing suites, spreadsheets, word processors, databases, and presentation graphics packages will be eligible to upgrade for an estimated retail price of $149. The price for new users is $399. An upgrade to a standalone version of 1-2-3 Millennium Edition 9.5 will be available to users at $129, and to new users at $315. www.lotus.com