University buys a bit of Nasdaq

By ADAM GIFFORD

Auckland University's technology marketing arm, UniServices, has signed a $25 million deal for a share of Nasdaq-listed Boston company LifeFX.

UniServices gets 2.25 million shares of LifeFX common stock and warrants to purchase 750,000 additional shares, which on Friday were trading at $US4 ($9.15). They have traded for as high as $US30.

In exchange, LifeFX can commercialise software developed at the university's engineering school which allows lifelike animations of "virtual people" to be sent over the internet.

Intensive last-minute negotiations gave LifeFX exclusive ownership of the LifeFX player for all communications applications, including medical, scientific and engineering.

These applications were previously excluded because of a deal the university has with New Jersey company Physiome Sciences to commercialise the technology for use in medical research.

UniServices head Dr John Kernohan said the deal would not affect arrangements with Physiome.

The software grew out of a 20-year project by the School of Engineering and the Medical School to model organs and other body parts.

LifeFX has combined the software with text and speech technology to create a new class of internet applications.

Its first product, released last month, is Facemail, a browser plug-in which allows people to get their e-mail messages read to them on screen by a digital "Stand-In."

Facial expressions can be generated by text or common email emoticons. LifeFX also wants to use Stand-Ins for chat rooms and instant messaging.

The School of Engineering team, under Professor Peter Hunter, would continue to work closely with LifeFX to develop the technology, said Dr Kernohan, and would receive at least $650,000 a year to finance the work.

It was a major deal of its type, he said.

"When I talk to colleagues at places like MIT, Harvard and Yale, they say if they can end up with 5 per cent of a company when it goes public they're doing extremely well. We've got 6.8 per cent."

LifeFX chairman Michael Rosenblatt said the company wanted to use the technology so that doctors, hospitals, and insurance and pharmaceutical companies could use Stand-Ins to disseminate medical information online "and, in the process, humanise the interaction."

It also plans to license Stand-In technology in the field of customer relationship management.