ParaGraph, MSN in Virtual-Reality Deal

ParaGraph International Inc., a Silicon Valley company founded by Russian engineers, will develop a virtual-reality world for Microsoft Corp.’s online Microsoft Network, the two companies said. Under the arrangement ParaGraph, based in Campbell, will supply content for the project, code-named “Magic Resort,” and will license its technology for three-dimensional environments to the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Terms were not disclosed. ParaGraph said the project will allow users to create “avatars,” or animated versions of themselves, that can visit online versions of world cities, beginning with Moscow and Paris. “This project is a stage in our strategy to create a virtual time machine, in which anybody can visit any city of the world, while at the same time experimenting with his or her identity and behavior,” ParaGraph Chairman and Chief Executive Stepan Pachikov said. Executives did not say when the service would be available on the Microsoft Network, but a similar project will go live within the next several weeks on People World, Japan’s No. 2 online service, a company spokesman said. ParaGraph, which is privately held, was founded in 1989 by Pachikov, world chess champion Garry Kasparov and several engineers from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Microsoft shares rose $3 to close at $110.625 on Nasdaq.