Microsoft is in talks to buy Jump Networks, a closely held Internet calendar service, people familiar with the matter said.
A deal, if consummated, would continue a wave of consolidation among Web start-ups, particularly among companies that allow users to store their schedules and other personal information on Web sites.
Early last week, online-services giant America Online acquired Jump Networks' chief competitor, When Inc. Electronic merchant Amazon.com offers a similar service, called PlanetAll, that was purchased last year. Yahoo! also purchased a Web-calendar service.
Terms being discussed by Microsoft and Jump Networks couldn't be learned. People familiar with AOL's acquisition of When believe AOL agreed to pay around $US150 million in stock.
Microsoft and Jump Networks declined to comment.
A complement to Hotmail?
Online calendars are one of several applications normally used on desktop computers, including e-mail and address books, that have begun migrating to Web sites. That phenomenon is considered especially challenging for companies such as Microsoft that are in the business of selling desktop application software.
But the software giant has tried to build its own Web-based applications, and has stepped up acquisitions of Internet companies to stay competitive with nimble players such as Yahoo. It already offers Hotmail, a free e-mail service that now boasts 40 million users.
Microsoft has said in the past that it intends to offer a calendar and other functions to complement Hotmail. A person familiar with the matter said the company planned to combine an in-house team that had begun working on a calendar service with Jump's dozen or so programmers. Links with Hotmail could allow users to click an event on their calendars -- a football game, for example -- and send a note about it to a friend, another person close to the matter said.
Jump, which also offered its own e-mail, was founded in 1998 by a group of Cornell University graduates, including its 24-year-old chief executive officer, Bill Trenchard. Earlier this week, Mr. Trenchard addressed whether he would sell Jump in an e-mail note commenting on AOL's acquisition of When.
"The fact that we built such a complete solution shows that we are ready to go the long haul, but we are not shying away from strategic partnerships and alliances that help us complete our vision of changing the way things are done on the Web," he wrote.
