H-P, Netscape Plan Joint Venture

Hewlett-Packard Co. and Netscape Communications Corp. teamed up Tuesday to take the lead in the hot new market for intranets, internal computer networks used increasingly by business.

The companies said they will develop software that lets people using both Unix- and NT-based computers work across those networks, accessing and sharing information with the ease of surfing the public Internet.

HP and Netscape pointed to recent studies predicting torrid growth in intranets.

“They say if you want to be a leader, find a parade and get in front of it. Folks, this is what a parade looks like,” said James Barksdale, Netscape’s president.