Clark subsequently changed the name of his company to Netscape Communications and the name of the product to Netscape Navigator. Andreessen's team refined and embellished it - and as Spyglass more aggressively enforced its rights to the name Mosaic - Mr. Clark's company began with a version of the basic Mosaic software, calling it Mosaic Navigator. Clark, who established a competing company, which he initially called the Mosaic Communications Corporation, and hired away from the University of Illinois most of the members of the Mosaic development team, including its 22-year-old leader, Marc Andreessen. &T., Digital Equipment and Fujitsu.īut formidable competition arrived in May of last year in the form of Mr. The underlying software code has been licensed to more than 20 companies, including Microsoft, I.B.M., A.T. So great was the success of Mosaic that the University of Illinois, preferring to concentrate on academic development, licensed the responsibility for commercial marketing of Mosaic technology to Spyglass, based in Naperville, Ill. Mosaic was the first Web browser to enable even casual computer users to tap into the Web's enticing mix of text and pictures with a simple, point-and-click command structure. The roots of the rivalry between Navigator and Mosaic trace to early 1993 and the release of Mosaic as free software to the Internet community.ĭeveloped at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications at the University of Illinois, the original Mosaic was widely hailed as the Internet's "killer app" - the computer application so compelling that it would spur the sale of computers just to use it. "We'll make money every quarter this year, and that's a pretty good definition of profitable, isn't it?" he added, declining to be more specific. "I guarantee you, we made more out of the Novell deal than they made on the Microsoft deal," he said, referring to Spyglass, which has not disclosed the terms of the Microsoft pact. Clark dismissed market rumors that Netscape had virtually given Navigator away to Novell for a mere $500,000 because it was starved for cash and feeling panicked after Microsoft's endorsement of Spyglass's Mosaic. Netscape has not disclosed the financial terms for any of those deals. Bank of America, Mastercard and company called First Data have agreed to incorporate Navigator into their electronic home-banking and financial-transaction services.Īnd recently, Novell Inc., Microsoft's biggest rival, signed a deal with Netscape to incorporate Navigator into Novell's computer-networking software. Already, for example, Netscape has signed such a deal with Delphi Internet Services, a company that is a distant fourth in the commercial on-line services market behind America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy. Other business opportunities include selling Navigator's software technology to other companies to fold into their own software or network services. Clark, who first found fame and fortune as founder of Silicon Graphics Inc., a successful maker of computer work stations and software. Those are not empty words, coming from Mr. "I'm astonished I've never seen anything like this in my life," said James Clark, the 51-year-old chairman of the privately held Netscape, which is based in Mountain View, Calif. On many of the most popular World Wide Web sites, three of every four visitors find their way there using Netscape Navigator. People use the software to visit any of thousands of sites and "home pages," replete with pictures and graphics, like CBS's "Late Night With David Letterman" home page or the new Web site from Ragu Spaghetti Sauce, called Mama's Cucina. Since December, more than three million copies of Netscape Navigator have been distributed. And although other browsers are available, Netscape's Navigator software has emerged as many people's browser of choice. The frenzy involves "browser" software - programs that enable Internet users to navigate the phenomenally popular multimedia service known as the World Wide Web. Only a few months after releasing its first software, the company seems to be the runaway leader in a field with growth rates not seen since the early, heady days of the personal computer business. It would seem to be a bonanza for the Netscape Communications Corporation.
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