Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Mike Homer, a former marketing vice president of Netscape Communications Corp. and a pioneer in commercial use of the World Wide Web, died Feb. 1 after an almost two-year fight against Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The 50-year-old was known for his Hawaiian shirts, quick laugh and incisive mind, former Netscape Chief Executive Officer James Barksdale said in an interview. Homer wrote the first business plan for the company, which developed Web browser software and later challenged Microsoft Corp. in a battle for Internet users.

“It was a field that was brand new, and there weren’t a lot of models,” Barksdale said. “He was always quick to see the essence of things, to see if things could work. He was an unforgettable person, and I’m very, very sad.”

Homer was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob, often referred to as a human form of mad cow disease, after suffering from memory problems in 2007. Doctors don’t know how he contracted the disease.

“It struck so fast, and he lingered so long, which was itself a tragedy,” Barksdale said.

Homer was instrumental in marketing campaigns to convince a skeptical public that the Internet would blossom in 1994, when few had heard of it, said Chris Hempel, co-founder of San Francisco-based Spark Public Relations, who worked with him at Netscape.

Paved Way for Google

“People didn’t think the Internet would amount to anything,” Hempel said. “Netscape paved the way for Google and all these other companies.”

Later, Homer was a lieutenant in battles to convince regulators and courts that Microsoft was using its monopoly power to squeeze out Netscape’s browser, she said.

After leaving Netscape in 2000, following its acquisition by America Online Inc., Homer founded streaming-media technology company Kontiki Inc. He sold that business to VeriSign Inc. for $62 million in 2006.

As part of that deal, he donated the right to use Kontiki’s technology to the nonprofit Open Media Network, so it could be used in public radio and TV, according to a 2008 story in Current, a public-broadcasting trade paper published by WNET-TV in New York.

Homer also worked as an informal adviser to such companies as TiVo Inc. and Google Inc., and was a director of Palm Inc.

Homer’s career included nine years at Apple Inc., where he was the technology adviser to then-CEO John Sculley, who came to Silicon Valley from Pepsi-Cola Co.

Brought to Netscape

He also worked with Intuit Inc. Chairman Bill Campbell, his closest friend, at pen-computing maker Go Corp. After Go failed to catch on, its main venture-capital backer, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, brought Homer to Netscape, company co-founder Marc Andreessen said.

“Mike’s career spanned three complete phases of the computer industry and the Internet industry,” Andreessen said. “You didn’t want to get into an argument with him unless you were as smart as he was and as funny. It was like bringing a knife to a gunfight.”

Homer was a boating and baseball enthusiast who coached his children’s Little League teams after getting married 10 years ago. Sacred Heart High School, in his adopted home town of Atherton, California, named its science and student life center for Homer last year.

“He did a total left turn in how he ran his life,” after getting married, Andreessen said. “He stopped working full time and put a tremendous amount of focus on that.”

While Homer’s mental capacity faded during his illness, he still was able to joke about his predicament early on, said his friend Ron Conway, a well-known investor in startup companies.

After Homer was diagnosed, Conway visited him in the hospital. After taking Homer to lunch, Conway couldn’t find his car. “He said, ‘Hey Ron, I thought I had the memory problem,’” Conway said.

“He was one of the wittiest, funniest people you’ll ever meet, and treated everyone with the same respect, whether it was a waiter at his table or Jim Barksdale,” Conway said. “He came from very humble beginnings, and he stayed very humble.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Mullaney in New York at tmullaney1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 3, 2009 00:01 EST