Microsoft to Acquire Web-Based Software Firm Jump Networks

Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will acquire Jump Networks, a Web-based calendar and address-book service launched just four months ago, putting new force behind a growing trend toward offering software programs as services via the Internet instead of selling them in boxes for installation on individual personal computers.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Jump Networks, started by a group of Cornell University students, has a free Web site at which users can maintain a personal calendar, address book and task reminder, services similar to those already offered by such Microsoft competitors as Yahoo and America Online Inc.

Although Web-based software typically has fewer features than PC-based products such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes, it is popular because it is free and because it can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser. Most proprietary e-mail and scheduling software, by contrast, requires that it be installed in the personal computer being used.

Microsoft said Jump’s Mountain View, Calif.-based employees will be moved to the San Jose headquarters of Microsoft’s Web-based e-mail company Hotmail. The technology will also be tightly integrated with the Hotmail software, a program with 40 million users, so that a customer has to sign up only once for both services.

Both Jump and Microsoft say their products are complementary. Microsoft sees its Web-based software as consumer-oriented, while Outlook and Exchange are aimed at corporate users.

Still, many analysts expect that in time the two approaches could collide. Although large businesses will probably continue to use proprietary software for some time, the availability of free Web-based software could undercut Microsoft’s control over the desktop and make it more difficult for it to charge customers for each copy of its software.