Power Computing Announces Deal With Be

Struggling to replace its aging Macintosh operating software, Apple was upstaged when another computer maker announced an agreement to license a powerful new system that Apple itself had an eye on. Round Rock, Texas-based Power Computing Corp., which makes clones of Apple Macintosh computers, plans to install the new operating system in all of its computers by March and sell them at prices comparable to those of its current Mac clones. Its licensing deal with Menlo Park-based Be Inc., the privately held company founded by former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassee that created the software, should bring high-end Mac users such as graphic artists a far faster, simpler system for controlling the look and feel of their computers. Apple’s stock dropped 75 cents to $24.25 in Nasdaq trading. A spokesman at Cupertino-based Apple declined to comment.