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BroadVisionInc. (Nasdaq: BVSN) gained 1/4 to 24 5/16 Wednesday, partly recovering from a 6 1/4-point drop Tuesday, after analysts at Banc of America Securities repeated a strong buy rating on the stock.
Banc of America said BroadVision's (Nasdaq: BVSN) Tuesday drop of 20 percent was a "disproportionate blow" to the stock, coming as rival Art Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARTG) won a contract from Philips Electronics.
The firm said that investors appear to be concerned that Philips, a BroadVision
customer 
, may switch its software applications to Art Technology. "We do not
believe that this is the case," Banc of America said. The companies'
products are being used in different divisions, and Philips will continue to
use BroadVision, the analysts said.
After the close of trading Wednesday, BroadVision announced a US$17 million partnership with NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR) that links the software maker's personalized e-business products with NCR's Teradata database, customer relationship management applications, and automated teller machines.
NCR and BroadVision together will fund research and development centers to come up with products that let businesses coordinate marketing and customer service functions on a single network.
The new products "will help banks make the most of the brief time they have to interact with consumers at ATMs by providing a personal message for each consumer," the companies said. For example, a recent high school graduate could be greeted at his or her ATM with a pitch for a college loan, and a customer nearing the payoff of an existing car loan could be told about pre-approval for a new loan.
The joint venture will begin by targeting financial services businesses, and
will expand to include companies involved in retail , communications, travel
and transportation, and manufacturing.
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