The initiative provides for International Business Machines
Corp. to offer free technology, development and marketing help through its more
than 30 Innovation Centers around the world. IBM says it aims to speed up and
cut the cost of product development for the little companies it selects.
The announcement, from IBM’s Venture Capital Group, is the
latest in an intensifying contest between it and rival Microsoft Corp. to embed
their respective technologies in selected start-ups that they think will be
future winners in the global tech market. Microsoft is pushing software and
services based on its Windows, .Net and related systems, while IBM is
advocating “open source” software based on Linux, Java and other systems.
For the multinationals, the programmes are a new variation
on an old theme. For years, the world’s major tech companies – including Intel,
Cisco, Siemens and Sony – have operated small venture-capital funds that
invested in tech-startups that they thought particularly promising. In the last
two years, however, Microsoft and IBM have begun using their VC operations to
offer technology to the start-ups – sometimes in addition to cash, but
increasingly in lieu of it. For instance, last June Microsoft announced it took
a 10 per cent stake in a small
For the little companies, getting picked by either
multinational can seem a pretty good deal. Not only do they get access to some hot
technology, but they also become pilot fish swimming alongside the tech whales –
benefiting from the marketing and sales billions of the giant. For instance, in
its release announcing the new initiative, IBM quoted Yaacov Cohen, CEO of Mainsoft
Corp., one such beneficiary: “Our collaboration with IBM has given us greater
credibility to extend our cross-platform services beyond our traditional customer
base.” Cohen was further quoted as praising IBM’s help in translating some of
Mainstay’s products from the Microsoft .NET standard to the open-source J2EE
system.
IBM’s Innovation Centers operate on a global scale,
tailoring software and computer systems to individual business customers, or
helping develop new ones; this year, IBM said, the centers have completed more
than 4,000 projects for customers. At the centres, IBM said, the qualified
start-ups can get free access to technical experts, to IBM systems to test out
their new products, to free workshops, and free marketing help.
It said start-ups already working with IBM include Ranal
Group of
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