PointCast (dotcom)

PointCast was a company founded in 1992 by Christopher R. Hassett in Sunnyvale, California.

PointCast Network

The company's initial product amounted to a screensaver that displayed news and other information, delivered live over the Internet. The PointCast Network used push technology, which was a hot concept at the time, and received enormous press coverage when it launched in Beta form on February 13, 1996.cite news
url=http://www.news.com/PointCast-unveils-free-news-service/2100-1023_3-204658.html
title=PointCast unveils free news service
author=Aguilar, Rose
publisher=News.com
date=1996-02-13] The product did not perform as well as expected, in part because its traffic burdened corporate networks with excessive bandwidth use, and was banned in many places. It demanded more bandwidth than the home dial-up Internet connections of the day could provide, and people objected to the large number of advertisements that were pushed over the service as well.cite news
url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114424637699117715.html
title=The Best of the Worst
author=Meyer, Katherine
publisher=The Wall Street Journal
date=2006-05-03] The client was eventually bundled with Microsoft Windows.

News Corporation Purchase Offer and Change of CEO

At its height in January 1997, News Corporation made an offer of $450 million to purchase the company. However, the offer was withdrawn in March. While there were rumors that it was withdrawn due to issues with the price and revenue projections, James Murdoch said it was due to PointCast's inaction.cite news
url=http://www.news.com/PointCast-acquired-by-Idealab/2100-1033_3-225651.html
title=PointCast acquired by Idealab
author=Kawamoto, Dawn and Borland, John
publisher=News.com
date=1999-05-10] cite news
url=http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_17/b3626167.htm
title=PointCast: The Rise and Fall of an Internet Star
author=Himelstein, Linda and Siklos, Richard
publisher=BusinessWeek
date=1999-04-26]

Shortly after the purchase offer fell through, the board decided to replace Christopher Hassett as the CEO due to declining market share and performance problems with the software. After five months, David Dorman was chosen as the new CEO. In order to raise more capital, Dorman planned to take the company public and a filing was made in May 1998 with a valuation of $250 million. This plan was abandoned two months later, in favor of looking for a company to partner with or be acquired by.

Project Newnet

In August 1998, PointCast found such a partner. In order to compete with @Home, a consortium of telephone companies and Microsoft put together a project designed to promote use of DSL in preference to cable modems. The project was dubbed "Newnet" and the plan was to use PointCast's software as a portal for the service. The consortium planned to buy PointCast for $100 million as part of the deal. The deal was signed in December 1998 with the intent of launching the service in April 1999.cite news
url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/12/03/pointcast_strategic_investor_becomes_buyer/
title=PointCast strategic investor becomes buyer
author=Smith, Tony
publisher=The Register
date=1998-12-03]

Due to delays in the project, Dorman resigned as CEO in March 1999. Two weeks later PointCast were informed that their planned acquisition had been scrapped. In the reorganization that followed, 75 of the 220 employees were let go in an effort to reduce costs.cite news
url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/04/02/pointcast_sacks_third_of_workforce/
title=PointCast sacks third of workforce
author=Smith, Tony
publisher=The Register
date=1999-04-02] A number of bids were made to buy the company including two from former CEO Christopher Hassett, which were rejected.cite news
url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/04/06/pointcast_exceo_looks_to_reacquire/
title=PointCast ex-CEO looks to re-acquire company
author=Smith, Tony
publisher=The Register
date=1999-04-06] cite news
url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/04/21/pointcast_rejects_founders_buyback_offer/
title=PointCast rejects founder's buy-back offer
author=Smith, Tony
publisher=The Register
date=1999-04-21]

Instead, they sold out for about $7 million in May 1999 to Launchpad Technologies, Inc., a San Diego company founded and backed by Idealab, and the PointCast network was shut down the next year.cite news
url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/05/11/pointcast_bows_out/
title=PointCast bows out for a mere $7 million
author=Lettice, John
publisher=The Register
date=1999-05-11]

EntryPoint

Launchpad's eWallet product was combined with the existing PointCast technology to create EntryPoint, which had a free desktop toolbar and offered customized news, stocks and sports feeds. [cite web
url=http://pointcast.com/
title=Welcome To EntryPoint
archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/19991013022140/http://pointcast.com/
archivedate=1999-10-13
accessdate=2008-01-11] The new client abandoned push technology, resulting in much more economical use of network bandwidth.

Infogate

EntryPoint merged with Internet Financial Network in 2000 forming Infogate, continuing the same free service until switching to a fee-based co-branded model, partnering with news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. Infogate was sold to AOL Time Warner in March 2003. Infogate's senior executives — Cliff Boro, Vidar Vignisson, and Tom Broadhead – formed CVT Ventures, LLC, a venture-development group dedicated to accelerating technology startups.

PointCast.com today

In 2005 AOL sold PointCast Network assets to PointCast Network, Inc. PointCast today has customizable news in images, web based screen saver, a facebook app and offers its engine & technology for licensing and support. [http://PointCast.com PointCast Network] .

References