TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Media Firms Invest in Netscape: Four large media companies and Adobe Systems Inc. have bought stakes in Netscape Communications Corp., a start-up company whose software helps computer users navigate the Internet. Netscape said it has sold preferred stock amounting to 11% of the company to Adobe, Hearst Corp., Knight-Ridder Inc., TCI Technology Inc. and Times Mirror Co. The value of the transaction was not disclosed, but sources pegged it at about $20 million. The alliance with Netscape could help the media companies in their efforts to sell news and other information over computer networks. Adobe, a personal computer software firm that has been a pioneer in electronic publishing, is trying to establish its Acrobat software as a standard method for distributing and viewing electronic documents. Times Mirror owns the Los Angeles Times.