Hewlett-Packard Signs On With Apple-IBM's Taligent

SAN JOSE - Taligent, the Apple-IBM software partnership that had dropped off the industry radar in recent months, got a huge boost yesterday when Hewlett-Packard Co. agreed to become the third Taligent partner.

The move, rumored for months, means that the computer industry's major players now have all chosen sides in the battle over next-generation operating systems, which is expected to preoccupy the field during the next few years.

For an undisclosed sum, Palo Alto, Calif.-based H-P will buy 15 percent of Taligent - now co-owned by Apple Computer Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. - and will get one of the outfit's six board seats. H-P will use Taligent software in its offerings and will also make some of its own products available to

Taligent.