Macromedia has made the following announcement today:
For more information, contact:
Macromedia Netscape
Kirsten Armstrong Maggie Young
kirsten@macromedia.com maggie@netscape.com
(415) 252-4088 (650) 937-2370
NETSCAPE TO INCLUDE MACROMEDIA FLASH PLAYER WITH NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR BROWSER
SOFTWARE
Netscape and Macromedia Eliminate Need to Download Flash Plug-In
San Francisco and Mountain View Calif. June 9, 1998 Macromedia, Inc.
(NASDAQ: MACR) and Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today
announced a significant new marketing and distribution agreement to include
Macromedia’s Flash technology with Netscape Communicator client software.
As part of the agreement, Netscape has licensed Macromedia Flash technology
and will include the Flash player with every copy of its Netscape Navigator
browser software. Millions of Navigator users will automatically experience
high-performance Flash content — including web graphics, cartoons,
illustrations, animated web pages and more — without having to download a
separate plug-in. Flash will be integrated into the next maintenance
release of Netscape Navigator, to be released this summer.
In addition, Netscape will use Flash as a design element for its Computing
& Internet Channel on its Netscape Netcenter portal site. Netscape and
Macromedia will also participate in a variety of co-marketing activities
including online advertising and promotional campaigns.
“This is a significant breakthrough for consumers who want to experience
rich, interactive web content in today’s low-bandwidth environment,” said
Rob Burgess, chief executive officer of Macromedia. “Leading Internet
destinations such as the Olympic Committee, Sony Camcorders Europe, South
Park, Suzuki, The X Files, and more already use Flash to create
eye-catching graphics and animation. Now web consumers can enjoy these
destination sites — even when surfing the net with standard 28.8 modems —
without having to download a plug-in. Our partnership with Netscape is an
important step in our mission to add life to the web.”
“As a leader in multimedia for the web, Macromedia has developed a
wonderful technology with Flash,” said Marc Andreessen, executive vice
president of products at Netscape. “As an avid user of Flash, I can attest
that including the Flash Player in Navigator will bring an exciting new
dimension to the web experience.”
The agreement represents the most recent step in Macromedia’s vision to
make exciting Flash multimedia content available to a broad range of
Internet users around the world. With over 40 million downloads in the past
year, Flash is the most widely adopted vector animation and graphics
technology on the Internet. Macromedia recently published the popular Flash
file format (.swf) as an open Internet standard with widespread support
from Netscape and other industry-leading companies, including Microsoft,
IBM, RealNetworks, Associated Press, @Home and Broderbund. In addition,
this announcement furthers Netscape’s efforts to provide a more attractive
environment to content publishers, allow web designers to make animation a
standard element in their web designs, and enable developers to deliver
Flash-compatible authoring and editing tools. Moreover, with Netscape’s
installed base of more than 70 million Netscape clients, the end users’
Internet experience will benefit significantly from the coupling of these
market leading and award-winning products from Netscape and Macromedia.
“This is a new day for the web,” said Linda Keeler, vice president and
general manager at Columbia TriStar Interactive. “We’re already using Flash
to create exciting content that draws users to our site, and keeps them
interested once they’re there. With Flash support built into the Netscape
Navigator browser, we can achieve the highest production values at the
lowest bandwidths.” Columbia TriStar Interactive (CTI) is responsible for
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s online presence at http://www.spe.sony.com/
and is known for its innovative blending of technology, entertainment,
commerce and interactive communities for sites such as Godzilla, Men in
Black, Dawson’s Creek and Soap City among others.
About Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Flash products bring compelling, interactive multimedia content
to life on the web. Professional web designers use Flash to create and
deliver compact, fast, and beautiful vector-based graphics and animation
for the web.
About Macromedia
Macromedia’s mission is to help transform the web experience. By providing
its award-winning Web Publishing, Web Traffic, and Web Learning solutions
to web designers, consumers, and the enterprise, Macromedia is delivering
a completely new generation of Internet tools and technologies designed to
bring the web to life. Headquartered in San Francisco, Macromedia (NASDAQ:
MACR) has more than 550 employees worldwide and is available on the
Internet at http://www.macromedia.com Macromedia also hosts one of the
most engaging entertainment sites on the web at http://www.shockrave.com .
About Netscape
Netscape Communications Corporation is a leading provider of open software
and services for linking people and information over enterprise networks
and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers,
development tools, commercial applications and professional services to
create a complete platform for next-generation, online applications. Traded
on NASDAQ under the symbol NSCP, Netscape Communications Corporation is
based in Mountain View, California.
# # #
Macromedia and Flash are trademarks or registered trademarks of Macromedia,
Inc., as indicated. Netscape, Netscape Navigator and the Netscape N logo
are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the
United States and other countries. Other Netscape logos, product names and
service names are also trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation,
which may be registered in other countries. Other company names, brand
names and product names may be trademark(s) of others.