Microsoft Acquires Java Knowhow

Microsoft Wednesday announced an agreement to acquire Dimension X, a San Francisco developer of programmes using the Java language which creates interactive features for multimedia Internet Web pages.

The acquisition signals a shift by Microsoft to embrace the Java programming language more wholeheartedly, industry analysts said.

Until now, Microsoft has appeared less than enthusiastic about Java, which was developed by Sun Microsystems.

Java enables the development of cross-platform software which can run on any type of computer.

It is being widely used to create software for the Internet.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Microsoft is believed to be paying less than $50 million for the software developer, which has 40 employees.

 

Dimension X was the first of many Java start-up companies formed over the past two years to take advantage of the new language.

The acquisition is the latest in a series by Microsoft, which last month acquired WebTV, a company that has developed technology to deliver the Internet to TV sets, for $425 million, mostly in stock.

With a cash hoard of more than $9 billion, Microsoft is becoming increasingly acquisitive.

Over the past three and a half years, the company has invested about $2 billion in acquiring smaller companies.

Most of these investments have occurred over the past 12 months, Greg Maffei, Microsofts treasurer and vice-president of corporate development, noted during a presentation to venture capitalists earlier this week.

However, Maffei said Microsoft was cautious about placing too much emphasis on acquisitions.

Integrating technologies is hard. Thats why we dont do a lot of acquisitions, he said.