March Business Bits

  • ProBusiness, a payroll firm specializing in medium to large businesses, has acquired U.S. BeneSphere Administrators of Bellevue, Washington. The move expands ProBusiness' capabilities into outsourced employee benefit services.
  • Individual Software has released INDIVIDUAL Training for Office 97, a companion program to Microsoft's popular Office 97 software. The interactive software covers a range of basic to advanced functions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook. The products are available individually or as a suite, starting at $69.95.
  • "We expect to see a major corporate migration to Windows NT, and businesses will need to undertake wide-scale training and support," says Bill Riley, VP of corporate sales.
  • PeopleSoft, Inc. reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ending December 31, 1996. Non-recurring charges totalling $28.4 million connected to the acquisition of PMI and PeopleSoft's merger with Red Pepper Software Company reduced fourth quarter net income to $1.7 million, based on revenues of $147.7 million. For the year, PeopleSoft earned a net income of $35.9 million (.30 per share) based on revenues of $450.1 million.

    Without the non-recurring charges, the company's fourth quarter and annual totals for revenues and net income in 1996 come close to doubling those from the corresponding periods in 1995.

  • Pacific Bell Mobile Services plans to introduce this fall a wireless phone technology which will serve as an electronic receptionist. Based on technology developed for Pacific Bell by Wildfire Communications, the service can provide a variety of functions, such as informing callers that the wireless customer is in a meeting or even screening calls.
  • Pacific Bell Mobile Services will offer the service with its personal communications systems (PCS) technology, which offers the ease of a wireless communications device with the data processing capability of a computer.

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