Michael J. Homer, 50, a Silicon Valley executive who played important roles in the development of three waves of technologythe personal computer, the hand-held device and the Internet — died Sunday in Atherton, Calif., of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare neurodegenerative disorder, said Ron Conway, a close friend and prominent Silicon Valley investor.
In the mid-1990s, when the World Wide Web was just beginning to alter the high-tech landscape, Homer was a vice president at Netscape Communications Corp., the Silicon Valley startup that commercialized the Web browser.
Conway said Homer played important roles in the early development of Google and TiVo.
Donald C. Alexander, 87, a former IRS commissioner who clashed with President Richard Nixon over attempts to use tax information against political enemies, died of cancer Feb. 3, according to the law firm where he was a partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. He served as Internal Revenue Service commissioner from 1973 to 1977.
