Microsoft to Buy Web Software Firm
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, sources close to the deal said.
The move, to be announced today, 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, sources said.
Microsoft representatives declined to comment, and messages left for Vermeer executives were not immediately returned.
Vermeer, founded in 1994, is a privately owned company in Cambridge, Mass., that makes software for producing Web pages without complicated programming. Co-founder and Chairman Charles H. Ferguson is a noted technology industry consultant and author.
The Microsoft Office Suite is one of Microsoft’s top-selling products, assembling in one package its word-processing, spreadsheet, database and meeting presentation programs. Microsoft sells the suite for about half 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 WordPerfect 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 online 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 that the company was considering an acquisition or addition to the Office product.
A software market analyst said the decision makes 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?” she said.
Because Microsoft Office dominates the market, FrontPage could become a standard for other companies to match in Web-authoring programs, she said.
