Late News (17 September)

• IBM subsidiary Tivoli has signed a definitive merger agreement with Unison in a deal worth $170 million. Although the deal is subject to shareholder agreement, Unison?s two largest shareholders, who are also officers and directors of the company, have agreed to vote their 32 per cent holding in favour of the deal.
• Electronic Arts is reported to have made an offer to purchase Virgin Interactive. But the deal may well be scuppered by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission if it investigates the merger, which would control more than a quarter of all leisure software sales in the UK.
• Lotus is pushing back the release of Notes 5 and Domino 5 until the first half of 1998 so it can integrate Microsoft?s Windows 98 desktop, channel Definition Format technology and Internet Explorer 4 into the applications.
• William Keiper, CEO of troubled networking software maker Artisoft, has resigned. The company has no plans to name a replacement.
• The legal battle between Digital and Intel took a further twist this week with Intel dropping five patent infringement claims. Digital claimed that the countersuit was only a legal manoeuvre, and continues to push its case over patents regarding Risc technology.
• Compel?s results for the year ended 30 June showed a profit of #5.1 million on turnover of #111.8 million, against a profit of #3.2 million on turnover of #85.6 million last year.