Netscape Communications Corp

AOL, Netscape Consider Alliance: The talks between the companies are aimed at fending off a challenge from Microsoft Corp., sources said. Vienna, Va.-based America Online may license Netscape Communications Corp.'s browser, the most popular software used to navigate the Internet, as an early move in the partnership. Discussions are in the preliminary stage and it could be weeks before an announcement is made, the sources said.

Netscape Navigator, the world's first commercial Web browser and the launchpad of the Internet boom, will be pulled off life support Feb. 1 after a 13-year run. Its current caretakers, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, decided to kill further development and technical support to focus on growing the company as an advertising business. Netscape's usage dwindled with Microsoft Corp.'s entry into the browser business, and Netscape all but faded away after the birth of its open-source cousin, Firefox.

Netscape Communications Corp. shares rose 24% on optimism that new Chief Operating Officer Barry Ariko, who joined the Internet software maker yesterday from Oracle Corp., will boost sales and partnerships. Netscape climbed $6.13 to close at $31.19 on Nasdaq. It was the biggest percentage increase since July 1, when Netscape gained from speculation that it could be in line for an investment from a media company.

AOL plans today to relaunch its Netscape Internet portal as an experiment in community journalism, trying to recapture the magic of the once-famous online brand. Netscape will rely on its users to submit, rank and comment on news stories, videos and blog postings from across the Web. Stories will be organized into 30 categories, such as movies, travel and money.

Netscape Communications Corp. said it will introduce its first national consumer advertising campaign in 1999 using a mix of television, print, radio and online ads. The campaign is part of a bid to expand the Netscape brand and its Netcenter site beyond marketing efforts aimed at computer technologists and users and to put flesh on the bone of the Internet pioneer's near-mythical aura. The move follows Netscape's $4.2-billion deal last month to be acquired by America Online Inc.

Netscape Communications Corp.'s two top executives, Chairman James Clark and President and Chief Executive James Barksdale, reduced their stake in the struggling Internet software company in 1997, according to recent government filings. Barksdale owns 4.8 million Netscape shares, or 4.9% of the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, down from 5.1 million shares, or 5.8%, in February 1997. Clark owns 15.2 million shares, or 15.5% of the firm's shares.

Netscape Communications Corp. said it will sell three new products through retailers as part of its strategy to get 100 million copies of its Internet software into consumers' hands. The Mountain View-based software maker will begin selling the three new editions of its Communicator browsing software for prices starting at $29, including rebates. Browsers allow computer users to search for information on the World Wide Web. Netscape, seeking a way to retain its lead over Microsoft Corp.

Its stock price plunged and its share of the Internet browser market shrank, but Netscape Communications Corp. continued to grow at a breakneck pace in 1996. The Mountain View-based company's sales soared to $346 million last year, up 310% from a year earlier. The growth was largely fueled by the company's successful effort to go beyond the browser by developing an array of software for corporate customers.

Yahoo Inc. introduced a business-to-business directory that lists equipment and supplies that companies can buy on the Web. . . . Compaq Computer Corp. will put Microsoft Corp.'s Internet service on its Presario personal computers under a three-year alliance. . . . Netscape Communications Corp. said it will release a test version of its long-overdue Web browser, Netscape 6.0, within the next 25 days.

America Online has inked a deal to distribute its Netscape Web browser with Hewlett-Packard Co. personal computers sold in the United States and Canada starting early next year. It is the first PC distribution deal for an alternative browser since Microsoft Corp. won the "browser wars" of the late 1990s. Under the agreement, Netscape will be preinstalled on all new HP and Compaq brand consumer PCs.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Seven years after it was surpassed by Microsoft Corp.'s Web browser, industry pioneer Netscape is coming out with a version based in part on Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Netscape 8.0, set to be released today, uses the core technology in the upstart Firefox browser to display some Web pages and shows others using a version of Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Corp. will pay AOL Time Warner Inc. $750 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the software giant unfairly crushed AOL's Netscape Web browser. In the settlement deal announced Thursday, the rivals also agreed to collaborate on digital media initiatives to thwart piracy, an important move as the Internet gains currency as an entertainment medium piping music and movies into homes.

Long after Microsoft's Internet Explorer won the browser wars, AOL's Netscape Communications division is launching another volley in its battle to stay relevant. Netscape 7, now available for downloading as a preview release, is more defensive than offensive: It fixes the bugs and improves on the speed of its predecessor while adding features others already have. That's not to say that Netscape has nothing new to offer.

Former Netscape Communications Corp. Chief Executive James Barksdale, a key witness in next month's Microsoft antitrust trial, will testify that if the software giant's proposed settlement with the Justice Department had been in place six years ago, Netscape might never have been formed. As the lead-off witness in the Justice Department's first trial against the software giant in 1998, Barksdale won points with his folksy language.

Security experts warned Internet users about a security hole in Netscape's Web browser that has infected almost 1,000 computers. Once a computer is infected, a hacker can click through the victim's computer and see, run and delete files on the target computer. The method has been making the rounds of computer security mailing lists and bulletin boards over the weekend. Netscape said it was working to find a speedy remedy to the problem.

International Business Machines Corp., Lotus Development Corp., Netscape Communications Corp., Novell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. plan to form a global Internet consortium. Novell said the goal of the consortium is to provide customers with Internet and intranet training and certification. The members of the consortium plan to name another company to administer the training and certification program, which will be rolled out in 1997, Novell said.

Kevin Fitzgerald, Netscape Communications Corp.'s vice president of North American sales, left the struggling Internet software maker to join closely held CrossWorlds Software Inc. Fitzgerald is the third top executive to leave Mountain View-based Netscape in the last month. He will head sales in North and South America for Burlingame-based CrossWorlds, which develops software that links applications that automate business processes.

Netscape, the maker of the Web-browsing software at the heart of the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., is set on Wednesday to unveil a much-delayed upgrade that marks the sharply curtailed ambitions of the once pioneering program. Netscape 6, the latest version of the program millions rely on as their primary window to the Internet, will be introduced at a trade show in Los Angeles by officials of America Online Inc., which acquired Netscape last year.

Yahoo Inc. introduced a business-to-business directory that lists equipment and supplies that companies can buy on the Web. . . . Compaq Computer Corp. will put Microsoft Corp.'s Internet service on its Presario personal computers under a three-year alliance. . . . Netscape Communications Corp. said it will release a test version of its long-overdue Web browser, Netscape 6.0, within the next 25 days.