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News > Technology
PointCast founder in bid
April 2, 1999: 5:17 p.m. ET

Former CEO preparing to take over Internet 'push' technology firm
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - PointCast Inc. founder and former Chief Executive Officer Chris Hassett told CNNfn Friday he's preparing a bid for the company with the backing of Wall Street firms and other financial sources.
     The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company pioneered what's known as "push" technology, which automatically delivers news and information to Internet users.
     At one time, push technology was regarded as the next big thing on the Internet, since it obviated the need for users to surf the Web to get the information they wanted. Its luster quickly faded, however, largely because users complained the system slowed down their computers' performance.
     PointCast says it has about 1.1 million members, and about a third of them use the service daily.
     Hassett said Yahoo! Inc.'s (YHOO) $5.7-billion acquisition of Broadcast.com Inc. (BCST) Thursday illustrates the value of a large membership base.
     Hassett declined to specify the terms of the deal. The entrepreneur, now CEO of PrizePoint, a New York-based entertainment Web site, said PointCast turned down a $450 million offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS) in 1997.
     Last July, PointCast shelved a plan to take 20 percent of the company public.
     The Hassett family still owns 15-20 percent of PointCast's common stock.
     Thursday, PointCast said it was laying off 75 employees, about a third of its workforce. The company said a deal with several telecommunications companies to acquire PointCast fell through.
     Hassett stepped down as CEO in 1997 and was replaced by former Pacific Bell executive David Dorman, who resigned the post earlier this year to lead the AT&T Corp. (T)-British Telecom (BTY) joint venture. Back to top

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.