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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Microsoft To Acquire Vermeer Inc. Web Software Target Of Strategy

Associated Press

Microsoft Corp. plans to buy Vermeer Technologies Inc. and incorporate Vermeer’s World Wide Web publishing software into its top-selling suite of office programs.

The move, to be announced Tuesday, could establish Vermeer’s FrontPage program as the leading way to write information for the Web portion of the Internet and other electronic networks.

It also is a sign of Microsoft’s aggressive turn toward becoming an important maker of Internet-related programs, which the company had given short shrift.

Terms of the acquisition were not available late Monday and are not likely to be disclosed by the companies, according to sources close to the deal.

Microsoft representatives declined comment and calls to Vermeer executives were not returned.

Vermeer is a privately-owned company in Cambridge, Mass., that was started in April 1994 to make software that would let people produce Web “pages” without complicated programming. Co-founder and chairman Charles H. Ferguson is a noted technology industry consultant and author.

The Microsoft Office suite has become one of its top-selling products, placing in one package its word processing, spreadsheet, database and meeting presentation programs. Microsoft sells the suite for about half the price of what the programs would cost if bought individually.

The suite concept, which Microsoft originated about four years ago, helped its individual applications charge past those of rivals Lotus Development Corp. and Word Perfect Corp. Both companies later packaged their products in suites but not before Microsoft had come to dominate the market. In 1995, Microsoft sold nearly nine of 10 suite packages.

Microsoft’s decision to give FrontPage such a prominent position in its product line is another sign of the growth of the Web and internal networks that use the same technical standards as the Web.

With companies such as Netscape Communications Corp. and Spyglass Inc. grabbing headlines last year with Web-related software, Microsoft appeared to be missing Internet opportunities.

The company last month announced it would change its on-line service, the Microsoft Network, to more simply interact with the Internet. It also said it would incorporate new networking features into several existing programs and change its Visual Basic language for the Internet-related programming.

Microsoft executives at that time did not indicate the company was considering an acquisition or addition to the Office product.

A software market analyst said the decision made sense because publishing information on the World Wide Web is relatively inexpensive. In addition, the presence of the program may encourage consumers who are inexperienced with the Web to try it out, said Ann Stephens, analyst at PC Data Inc. in Reston, Va.

“It’s so risk free, so why not?” Stephens said.

Because Microsoft Office is so dominant, FrontPage may become a standard for other companies to match in Web-authoring programs, she said.