OnLive! Technologies Inc, Cupertino, California company seeking to provide the technology to enable groups of people visiting a Web site to chat to each other in a teleconference, has won $23m investment from super-ambitious Softbank Corp’s Softbank Holdings Inc, which gets a 30% stake for its money. The system – effectively a multi-user Internet phone system – clearly has attractions for events such as on-line press conferences, and would be of value in distance-learning systems, particularly ones devoted to abstruse subjects few schools can afford to offer. OnLive plans to launch its product this summer. A glittering roster of investors includes Intel Corp, Creative Laboratories Inc, Seagram Co Ltd’s MCA Inc, AT&T Corp, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre, Mohr Davidow and New Enterprise Associates.
