The still-unnamed travel portal being developed in Chicago has welcomed aboard the first full-time member of its management team. Award-winning Web site designer Alex Zoghlin, who sold his successful Web-site development company Neoglyphics almost two years ago, has been named chief technology officer.
He has been working on the travel site for several months on a contract basis with Boston Consulting Group, which is managing its early development.
“It bodes well that I am eager to become a full-time employee,” Zoghlin said. “Had I thought there was going to be some huge technical pieces that wouldn’t come into place by the time we needed to launch … boy, I would have been the first one scurrying off the boat like a scared rat.”
Instead, he is pumped by the challenge of developing the site, incorporating a host of new technologies and preparing for a summer launch. “I find it immensely exciting to take on this huge technical question (how to make complicated travel arrangements) that baffles users trying to make travel arrangements,” he said. “I would love to be able to say, ‘I solved it.'”
First announced last November by Continental, Delta, Northwest and United airlines, the site plans to offer consumers one-stop shopping with a complete selection of products and services from more than 455 air carriers, 200 hotel companies, 44 car-rental companies and a large number of cruise lines, vacation packages and travel suppliers worldwide.
In addition, all participating carriers will provide their Internet-only fares on the site, allowing consumers to simply and quickly compare and purchase tickets online at these lower rates.
On Tuesday, Zoghlin announced that five technology suppliers will provide services to the site. They are: ITA Software in Cambridge, Mass., (a shopping engine to search airfares); Datalex in Dublin, Ireland and Atlanta (a booking engine to connect reservation systems); NOVO in San Francisco (user interface design function); and TRX (customer service provider tools) and Worldspan (global travel distribution system provider), both in Atlanta.
Zoghlin, 30, said utilizing these and other 21st Century technologies is exactly the kind of challenge he welcomes following the sale of Neoglyphics, whose clients ranged from Citibank to Playboy and from Caterpillar to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I had a few successes under my belt and I tried to go the venture capital route and back new ideas,” he said. “But at my age, right now, I was bored out of my mind. It wasn’t exciting.
“Having worked with the Fortune 1000 companies, I have enough experience to know when things are difficult, yet I’m still young enough to believe that what most people think is impossible is still possible.”
Spyglass merges with interactive TV
Naperville-based Spyglass Inc., has merged with Mountain View, Calif.-based OpenTV, an interactive television software company that has more than 6 million set-top box subscribers in 20 countries.
It has been a bumpy, decade-long ride for Spyglass. The company soared as a browser pioneer and then nose-dived after Microsoft Corp. licensed Spyglass’ browser technology and gave away for free its own Internet Explorer. Spyglass reinvented itself as a consultant and provider of software that translates Internet content for wireless and hand-held appliances.
The combined company plans to offer a comprehensive solution to cable and satellite television network operators, broadcasters, wireless operators and manufacturers worldwide as those clients move from narrowband broadcasting to broadband interactivity.
OpenTV’s president and chief executive officer Jan Steenkamp will head the merged companies. Doug Colbeth, Spyglass chairman and CEO, will become executive vice president/corporate development of a newly formed wireless communications unit. Martin Leamy, Spyglass president, will become general manager of a newly formed consulting services business unit. Spyglass’ 190 employees join OpenTV’s 260 staffers.
Colbeth said the Naperville office will remain open, but the merged company’s headquarters will be in Mountain View. “Marty and I reside there in Naperville on weekends anyway. At this point, about 30 percent of our employees are out in Silicon Valley, and we’re used to the shuttle,” he said.
During a news conference Monday, Steenkamp was asked how OpenTV justified a $2.5 billion price tag for the Naperville company. Although Spyglass was expected to meet analysts’ expectations this year and edge itself back into profitability, it was valued at only $2.5 million last October. Steenkamp said that since October, investors have seen the potential of the interactive television market, with as many as 240 million households projected to move to interactive television within the next five years.
Added to that conducive investment climate was Spyglass’ employee base. “One of the challenges is recruiting experienced employees,” Steenkamp said. “With 190 new employees skilled in translating content to wireless appliances, we see a strategic fit in our goal to offer the most advanced offerings to our customers.”
Under the terms of the tax-free deal, Spyglass stockholders will receive 0.7236 OpenTV shares in exchange for each Spyglass common share. Based on OpenTV’s closing stock price last Friday, the transaction values Spyglass shares at $122.28, a nearly 75 percent premium to Friday’s closing price of $69.87.
Site-ings
Downers Grove-based Digital Disrupters, which develops business-to-business models that leverage Internet technologies and then partners with brick-and-mortar companies to create new e-business organizations, welcomed Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen to its advisory board. Christensen will leverage both academic research and demonstrated business expertise to advise Digital Disrupters.
Prior to joining the Harvard Business School faculty, Christensen served as chairman and president of Ceramics Process Systems Corp., a company he co-founded with several MIT professors in 1984.
Christensen’s book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,” won the 1997 Global Business Book Award.
IT giant IBM and Qwest Communications International Inc., a broadband network provider, have initiated a multiyear plan to offer e-business services and applications through the creation and deployment of Qwest CyberCenters (Internet data centers).
More than $5 billion in revenue is expected from the agreement and will be split almost equally between the two companies. This relationship is one of the largest to be forged between a network services provider and an information technology company.
Qwest has selected IBM to build and provide operational support for 28 new CyberCenters during the next three years, each of which will be a minimum of 100,000 square feet. The first four centers, which are expected to be operational later this year, will be in Dallas, Philadelphia, Sterling, Va., and San Jose, Calif. Within the next three years, additional CyberCenters are slated to be opened in Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, Phoenix, Seattle and Austin, Texas.
Downers Grove-based iLink Global, a provider of global logistics and transportation services for e-businesses, has entered into a business partnership with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, an international logistics company. Hellman Worldwide operates more than 300 offices on five continents, covering customs ports worldwide. The 125-year-old company has 23 offices based in the United States and Canada and is headquartered in Osnabr1ck, Germany. Chicago-based Knightsbridge Solutions LLC has introduced “Infinite-T,” a new suite of services to deliver high-performance data-centric solutions to global telecommunications firms. The service suite provides solutions for data warehousing, database marketing and customer-care applications.
Knightsbridge Solutions is a systems integration company that delivers data-centric solutions to power global e-commerce. It has marketing partnerships with IBM Corp., NCR Corp., Ab Initio Software Corp. and MicroStrategy Inc.
Chicago-based Metamor Worldwide will be acquired by Herndon, Va.-based PSINet, a global infrastructure support company. As part of the $1.9 billion deal, Metamor’s e-business solutions subsidiary, Xpedior, will receive $50 million in convertible stock. PSINet will assume Metamor’s 80 percent ownership of Xpedior.
Portland, Ore.-based Handyman Online, which has an office in Elmhurst, announced its affiliation with Evanston-based OurHouse.com, a home improvement and services company.
As part of its national expansion plan, Handyman Online will partner with OurHouse.com to provide contractor referral services for homeowners. Homeowners can click on OurHouse.com to receive free referrals from Handyman Online’s bank of pre-screened local contractors.
Chicago-based e-commerce product and service provider Mercantec and application service provider Interliant are hosting a free e-commerce seminar from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and again from 1 to 4 p.m. April 12 at the Oak Brook Hyatt, 1909 Spring Rd., Oak Brook. Mark Brohan of EC Software News will be the keynote speaker. For further information call 630-305-3200 or visit www.mercantec.com/e-commerceseminar.
———-
E-mail: MFitzpatrick@tribune.com
