InformationWeek

November 9, 1998

I.T.Confidential

By Jack Soat

US Web's rapid-fire replacement last week of co-founder Joe Firmage as CEO with ex-Oracle exec Robert Shaw fanned the flames of controversy over Firmage's role in a deep-thinkers' club known as the International Space Sciences Organization. Firmage's connection to the group, which sponsors a Web site called Kairos (www.thewordistruth.org), was an issue in US Web's merger with CKS Group, according to sources. Suddenly, Shaw appeared on the scene. A US Web spokesman says there was no connection between the two events, and Shaw himself calls the timing "a coincidence." But Shaw admits there was barely a week between his being contacted for the US Web job and his installation as CEO. As for Firmage's extracurricular activity, says Shaw: "I don't know much about it and I purposely want to keep it that way." Firmage is now US Web's chief strategist.

Bob Crandall, who retired as chairman and CEO of American Airlines last spring, is rumored to be considering the chairman's job at EDS. There's one hitch: Crandall, 62, had apparently promised his wife, Jan, that he would take it easy. He appeared to be keeping that promise, too. An article in last month's Blue Water Sailing magazine showed a happy couple aboard their new sailboat, Arway, which they sailed from England to their summer home in Gloucester, Mass. But the boat's faulty on-board systems may have awakened a new urge in Crandall. If he builds another boat, he told the magazine, "I'd want to work with the systems-integration people more closely to get the electronics, computer, and navigational equipment to a point that I could troubleshoot it myself." Sounds like a hands-on guy. So much for taking it easy.

At the same time Oracle reached out to Mitch Kertzman to save NCI, its struggling network computing affiliate, IBM promoted the man responsible for the relative success of its NC division. Bob Dies, who was GM of that division, last week got bumped up to GM of network and personal computers. IBM insiders say the appointment of Dies to oversee both NCs and PCs was an acknowledgment of a job well done, for getting products to market in a timely manner, and success at selling them into vertical industries such as travel and health care.

Bob Kerstein, who owns the trademark for the title Windows 2000, says he won't go after Microsoft for a settlement. "I am getting a lot of E-mail from people egging me on," says Kerstein. "And it's growing as the word's getting out." Kerstein says he has a "common law" trademark for Windows 2000, as well as a registered trademark for the domain name www. windows2000.com. Kerstein, former CFO of McCaw Cellular, created Windows 2000, an Internet portal to video sites around the world, as part of his Internet education site, Encyberpedia, in 1996.

"It started with two brothers in a basement with a dog," says Joe Furrier, VP of sales and marketing for Labrador Software, an Internet search and retrieval software vendor launched in 1996. Labrador recently introduced its first product, E-Retriever, and is heavily promoting its logo--a labrador retriever. Imagine Furrier's surprise when last month Internet search firm Lycos unveiled its $25 million ad campaign: Lycos the Lab- rador. Labrador Software filed a letter of complaint in a Boston court last week to stop the Lycos campaign. Furrier says he's not looking for a settlement, either. "This has nothing to do with naked opportunism," he says. "We are just looking to get our name back."

What's wrong with naked opportunism? It's been my mantra for years. Just call me a child of the Eighties. And call me with an industry tip--you might get some cool InformationWeek logoed-stuff (talk about opportunism!). Phone 516-562-5326 or fax 516-562-5036 or E-mail jsoat@cmp.com.