Because they missed their opportunity to distribute the original film the first time around, CinemaNow and Trimark Pictures announced last week that they have acquired all rights to several spoofs of The Blair Witch Project, with negotiations already underway to acquire several more. The original Blair Witch film has been put on a fast-track schedule for release on DVD in time for Halloween, including the requisite "Newly Discovered" footage, Internet links, and other special features.

In an effort to dominate the potentially huge set-top box market, both Sun Microsystems and Microsoft announced deals with cable provider TCI at the recent CES in Las Vegas. Coming within one day of each other, the two announcements illuminate the struggle about to take place between rivals Sun and Microsoft to place their operating systems in consumers' homes.

Last week, semiconductor developer Silicon Image announced that it has completed the acquisition of DVDO. Silicon Image says that this acquisition positions the company to extend its Digital Visual Interface (DVI) technology leadership beyond the PC market and into emerging digital consumer-electronics applications such as digital TVs, DVD players, and set-top boxes for high-definition video.

Last week, Sony and Candescent Technologies, a developer of flat panel displays (FPD), announced an agreement to extend their existing partnership. In October 1998, the two companies announced their initial agreement regarding the joint development of high voltage Field Emission Display (FED) technology for "next generation" thin, flat-panel displays. The new agreement extends their joint technology development partnership, under which the two companies say they will co-fund these activities, until December 2001.