Tech Digest

Tech Digest

Wednesday, February 20, 2002

AltaVista dropping its free e-mail in March

AltaVista Co. said yesterday that it will drop its free e-mail service next month as part of its effort to focus on making money from its online search engine.

That could present an opportunity for Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail, which also offers free e-mail.

About 400,000 e-mailboxes maintained by AltaVista will be closed March 31, the company said. Only half those e-mailboxes were actively used, AltaVista said. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company offered free e-mail accounts while trying to develop a multipurpose Web site similar to Yahoo.com.

InfoSpace acquires assets of eCash

InfoSpace Inc. said yesterday that it has acquired assets of Bothell-based eCash Technologies Inc. in a deal of undisclosed value. Eventually, the deal will allow Bellevue-based InfoSpace to offer merchants the ability to process debit-card transactions, the company said.

Currently, merchants who use InfoSpace technology can process credit card and electronic-check transactions, but do not have the ability to receive debit-card payments. InfoSpace, through its Authorize.Net program, processed more than $2 billion of payments last year.

InfoSpace will add up to 14 of eCash's 30 employees to its staff, the company said.

"This particular transaction was an asset purchase, not an outright acquisition," said Adam Whinston, a spokesman for InfoSpace. "We've extended offers to certain employees, and they can choose to accept them or not."

InfoSpace's stock closed down 11 cents, or 6.6 percent, at $1.56 a share.

Snippets

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates flies to Japan this week to introduce the Xbox game console there Friday after touring key cities to generate more enthusiasm for the product. ... Microvision Inc., a Bothell company that is developing retinal-scanning-display technology, said it has received new patents, increasing its portfolio to 55 patents. ...

Sierra On-Line, a Bellevue based game developer, said it has changed its name to Sierra Entertainment Inc. to better reflect the range of products that it is developing, including games for both personal computers and consoles. ... Gitwit, a Kirkland company that is making interactive faceplates for cell phones, has changed its name to Wildseed in order to better identify the company with adults. ...

SonoSite Inc., a Bothell maker of portable ultrasound machines, said its products are being used by the medical organization that accompanied the German Olympic team to the Salt Lake City Games. ... A new service release for Microsoft's Visio 2002, providing support for Visual Studio .NET and control over Microsoft's ClearType on-screen type control, is available at http:// office.microsoft.com/downloads/.

Honeywell International Inc., which is based in New Jersey but has offices in Redmond, said it will work with the Federal Aviation Administration to create a new air-transport radio. ...

Tech Digest is written by P-I reporters John Cook, Marni Leff and Dan Richman. Send comments to marnileff@seattlepi.com. This report includes information from The Associated Press and Bloomberg News.

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