CA and MetaCreations Set Up E-Commerce Web Site Venture

Computergram International, July 13, 1999

Computer Associates International Inc teamed up with MetaCreations Corp yesterday to announce the creation of MetaStream.com, a joint-venture company that will develop and deliver MetaStream technology and services to e-commerce companies. MetaStream is the streaming open file format co- developed by MetaCreations and Intel for the delivery of 3D graphics over the internet. The two companies said MetaStream.com will be owned 80% by MetaCreations and 20% by CA. Sandeep Divekar, CA's SVP of visualization strategy, said the aim of the partnership is to market and sell combinations of CA's object oriented database, Jasmine TND, with MetaStream technology, to companies wanting to set up state of the art e-commerce web sites.

By incorporating photorealistic 3D content in tandem with Jasmine TND, e-tailers should be able to differentiate their web sites by providing customers with the ability to customize products for viewing and inspection in 3D. For example, in the future a shopper could visit the web site of a furniture retailer and visually inspect a chair in 3D, much the way he or she would in a showroom. He or she could also select fabrics and colors for the chair in detailed, photorealistic 3D, based on a database of objects and options.

The new company will initially focus on selling MetaStream technologies to e-commerce based web sites, then over time, it will focus on selling the combined product, alongside fee-based professional services for implementing and customizing the products. MetaCreations will contribute research, development and service personnel while CA is contributing expertise related to the management of rich multimedia through its Jasmine TND software. It will also assist with the integration of data from legacy systems and will promote MetaStream.com technologies, services and products to CA enterprise customers worldwide. MetaStream.com will have headquarters in New York City, and Robert Ricel, formerly VP of strategic affairs at MetaCreations, will serve as its president.