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MICROSOFT INVESTS IN GENERAL MAGIC, LICENSES TECHNOLOGY

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Microsoft Corp. made a minority equity investment in General Magic Inc. and licensed some of its technology, making a payment of $6 million to General Magic, the companies announced.

General Magic is developing integrated voice and data applications, and has and upcoming network service code-named Serengeti. The second-generation virtual assistant for mobile professionals will make e-mail, faxes, address book, calendar, news and stock quote information accessible through a phone using a proprietary voice user interface or Web browser, said the companies.

Designed to perform with several Microsoft applications, Serengeti is expected to be available by mid-1998. General Magic also built its first network operations center-to run exclusively on the Windows NT operating system-to manage the high volume of Serengeti subscribers expected over time, said the companies.

“A natural language voice user interface, such as Serengeti’s, is a powerful and flexible way to access information that we think will be pervasive,” said Nathan Myhrvold, chief technology officer of Microsoft.

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