Microsoft Buys Maker Of Web-Page Software -- Acquisition To Bolster Prowess On Internet

NEW YORK - Elevating its role in Internet software, Microsoft Corp. said today it would acquire Vermeer Technologies Inc. and place Vermeer's World Wide Web publishing software at the core of its product line.

The move may establish Vermeer's FrontPage program as a leading way to write information for the Web portion of the Internet and other electronic networks.

It also is a sign of Microsoft's aggressive turn toward becoming an important maker of Internet-related programs.

In a statement, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said FrontPage fills a gap in the software market between simple programs that add a key Web feature called "hypertext" to ordinary word-processing documents and complex Web publishing systems that cost thousands of dollars.

Vermeer is a privately owned company in Cambridge, Mass., that was started in April 1994 to make software for people to produce Web "pages" without complicated programming. Co-founder and Chairman Charles Ferguson is a noted technology-industry consultant and author.

FrontPage's features will become part of Microsoft Office, placed inside word-processing, spreadsheet and database programs as an important tool for everyday office use.

The FrontPage development team will move to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond.

Microsoft Office, which also includes a meeting presentation program, has become one of the best-selling products for the company, which is the largest maker of PC software. Microsoft Office sells for about $600, roughly half the price of what the programs would cost if bought individually.

The suite concept, which Microsoft originated about four years ago, helped its individual applications charge past those of rivals Lotus Development Corp. and Word Perfect Corp. Both companies later packaged their products in suites but not before Microsoft had come to dominate.

In 1995, Microsoft had a nearly 90 percent share of the U.S. suite market.

Because Microsoft Office is so dominant, FrontPage may quickly become the top-selling Web-authoring program, said Ann Stephens, analyst at PC Data, a software-market research firm in Reston, Va.

Microsoft's decision to give FrontPage such a prominent position in its product line is another sign of the growth of the Web and internal networks that use the same standards as the Web.

It is the latest move by Microsoft to demonstrate a focus on Internet opportunities.

The company on Dec. 7 announced it would change its online service, The Microsoft Network, to more flexibly interact with the Internet.

It also said it would incorporate new networking features into several existing programs and change its Visual Basic language for Internet-related programming.

The World Wide Web portion of the Internet has become popular because information - including graphics, sound and even moving images - on computers connected to the Web can be easily linked together.

FrontPage includes the programming language that makes such links possible. It can also automatically put extra features, such as an index, in Web pages and map out how different pages are connected.