IBM AND LOTUS
By Adnews Staff
IBM has the marketing muscle and access to large corporate accounts that could give the sales boost Lotus Development Corporation needs for Notes, one of the hottest computer software programs on the market right now. Both Lotus and IBM are based in the U.S. Lotus Development Canada's ad agency is Doner Schur Peppler in Toronto, while IBM has Ogilvy & Mather around the world. In a statement announcing his company's $3.3 billion(US) bid for Lotus this week, IBM chairman Louis Gerstner says his company can apply its "unmatched global marketing force" to Lotus products. Although IBM faces resistance from Lotus management because of culture clash, its bid is seen as likely to succeed because the company is offering shareholders a very generous price for their stocks. IBM has launched legal action to force Lotus directors to drop a "poison pill" and other anti-takeover provisions, and is asking stockholders to remove current directors from the Lotus board. With Notes, Lotus is the undisputed leader in what is currently seen as the greatest software growth area: groupware, programs that can run on top of a variety of operating systems, allowing networks of desktop computers and bigger machines to work together harmoniously. Users can work simultaneously on the same documents, and communicate with each other using voice, images and video. Notes had over a million users at the end of 1994. It is used by the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency, and General Motors has placed a large order. However, The New York Times cites "analysts" as saying that Notes has been slow to gain wide acceptance and so far has been only marginally profitable. The acquisition of Lotus would make IBM more competitive in the personal computer field where its sales ranking slipped below those of a number of other companies in the 90s.