STRATEGIC PARTNERS
March 21, 2002
ICL, a $4.4 billion IT services company, has extended its collaboration with Microsoft Corp. to develop a Windows operating system-based applications for electronic business, financial services and smart cards.
ICL expects the alliance to generate about $1.6 billion in new business over the next five years.
Applications for the consumer and corporate users to utilize include:
--Digital solutions for online banking, education, entertainment and shopping, including ICL's recent Internet-based refrigerator.
--Business applications that simplify the way organizations order and sell goods electronically and enable them to design customer relationships.
In addition to the existing seven set up during the initial alliance, ICL and Microsoft plan to establish five new solution centers. The new solution centers will be in Botswana, Finland, Paris, India and South Africa. Two of the existing U.S. centers are located in Washington and North Carolina.
At the same time, ICL and Microsoft announced a deal with cable TV operator NTL. to develop technology for interactive TV, whereby people do home shopping, send and receive e-mails and surf the net using special keypads pointed at their TV sets.
ICL said NTL would be the first cable operator to offer TV-based interactive content.
