Sculley joins NetObjects board

Former Apple chief executive John Sculley will join the board of NetObjects, which also just completed a $4.5 million round of financing that includes cash from AT&T Ventures, Perseus, a venture capital firm, and Sculley himself, CNET learned today.

Two other original stakeholders, venture capitalists Venrock Associates and Norwest also are participating in the new round of financing for the privately held Web toolmaker..

Sculley's board seat at NetObjects shows his deepening involvement in Silicon Valley, with the help of former Apple executives such as NetObject's chief executive Samir Arora. Sculley will not take a management role at NetObjects.

As previously reported, Sculley tomorrow will announce at Macworld a digital photography alliance with Apple and Live Picture, a Silicon Valley company that he runs. Sculley has invested in a third high-tech start-up, LiveWorld, that also is led by Apple alums.

NetObjects has been working on a plan to reshuffle its board and raise new capital. Two board members, one from Venrock and one from Norwest, recently left, sources said.

NetObjects has a Web publishing tool called Fusion for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Its product partners include IBM, Microsoft, UUNet Technologies, Netscape Communications, Sun Microsystems, and AT&T.