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Spyglass gains on licensing pact with Sony

Spyglass shares hustled up 16 1/4, or 24 percent, to a 52-week high of 83 1/4 Thursday after Sony Electronics said it would license its browser technology for use in its digital set-top boxes.

Company officials said Sony had licensed Spyglass Device Mosaic, an embedded Web browser; Spyglass Device Mail, an embedded e-mail system; Spyglass MicroServer, a Web server; and consulting from the Spyglass Professional Services group.

"This significant and material announcement is a strong endorsement of Spyglass products as well as our solutions-based business model for the interactive television market," said CEO Doug Colbeth in a prepared release.

Financial terms of the licensing deal were not disclosed.

Last quarter, Spyglass slipped past Street estimates, posting a loss of 4 cents a share on sales of $8.2 million.

Its shares fell to a 52-week low of 8 5/8 in April before taking off in December and again in February.

First Call consensus expects Spyglass to lose a penny a share in its second quarter and post a profit of a penny a share in the fiscal year.

Three of the four analysts tracking the stock maintain either a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.