(COMTEX) B: SPATIALIZER LICENSES COMPIZER AUDIO ENHANCEMENT FOR CONSU B: SPATIALIZER LICENSES COMPIZER AUDIO ENHANCEMENT FOR CONSUMER ELECTRONICS & PC CHIPSETS FIRST SHIPMENTS OF SPATIALIZER N-2-2 VIRTUAL Surround Enabled DVD Decoder IC's To Begin in January 2000 WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., and TAIPEI, Taiwan, Jan 19, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SPAZ) and Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALi) jointly announced today that ALi has licensed Spatializer's complete range of advanced audio enhancement technologies for inclusion across ALi's range of consumer electronic & PC components. ALi will begin shipping Spatializer(R) N-2-2TM Virtual Surround enabled DVD Decoder ICs in January, 2000 and will incorporate Spatializer 3D-Stereo (TM), along with Spatializer Vi.B.E (TM), Spatializer enCOMPASS (TM), and Spatializer StreamFX (TM) into the consumer electronic & PC markets. "This announcement marks the latest in a series of significant big-name license deals for Spatializer," said Pete Birch, Senior Vice President with Spatializer Audio Labs. "ALi is an exceptional company with a proven track record for delivering quality products at the right price. We are very pleased to welcome them to our extensive family of Spatializer licensees. We have inked this license deal on the basis of a co-operative arrangement which offers value for both parties." ALi, a preferred supplier to, and until recently part of the Acer Group, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of integrated circuits for the PC and embedded PC markets. ALi has created innovative leading products including the first industry standard Super I/O controller, the first RISC based PC system chip set, the first 100MHz Socket 7 chipset and the first complete DVD solution. Multiple best-product awards have been awarded to the company, along with significant patents and software copyright registrations. Throughout its years of dedication to the PC industry, ALi has developed one of the industry's richest PC-related Intellectual Property (IP) collections covering system, peripheral and multimedia devices. "We are happy to make this announcement," said Chin Wu, President of ALi. "Having evaluated all the competing technologies, we decided that Spatializer was the provider who could offer us the best audio enhancement solutions to help us increase our product sales into the consumer electronics market. Spatializer N-2-2 is a must-have for DVD's players, and we believe that Spatializer's other technologies can add significant value to our complete range of PC and Multimedia products. We see this announcement as the beginning of a long and successful partnership." Henry R. Mandell, Interim CEO for Spatializer added, "This is a very meaningful design win for our Company. ALi is a rapidly growing company with worldwide renown for technological innovation. Industry analysts have stated that by offering an integrated controller and de-compression solution, ALi will possess a strong competitive advantage in the DVD market. We believe that ALi's integrated solution will be a blockbuster product. This is a major deal for us in two respects. First, it broadens our presence in the DSP market and firmly positions us, along with our other world class DSP licensees, to offer our already widely adopted virtual surround sound technology to the broadest possible spectrum of OEMs in the burgeoning DVD market. Second, ALi is a world leader in the PC Core-Logic chipset market, with annual volume of several million units. As such, we are well positioned to further penetrate the laptop market in a significant way for our suite of enhanced audio technologies. We expect to be co-operating very closely with ALi to ensure that they are able to deliver the finest audio solutions to their customers. We are very honored to have a partner of this quality." Mr. Birch concluded, "We are very satisfied at the continued design win momentum for our technologies. In particular, this provides substantial weight to our claim that Spatializer N-2-2 is positioned as the de-facto standard for virtual surround sound enhancement for DVD players, and the technology that all others are judged by. We will be working very hard to ensure that we provide ALi and our existing Licensees with the highest level of support for our current and future technologies." ALi (Acer Laboratories Inc.), founded in 1987, is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, with its North American/European operations out of its office in San Jose, California. Since its establishment, ALi has provided highly integrated, cost-effective and innovative IC products to support personal computer system and subsystem manufacturers. ALi is not only one of the world's oldest and largest system core logic manufacturers but is also a world-class provider of other PC peripheral products, such as graphics and multimedia chips, Super I/O controllers and CD-ROM controllers. ALi is capable of developing a wide range of products to support a variety of CPUs, including the X86 families up through 64-bit CPUs, such as the Pentium Pro, Pentium, M1, M2, K5, K6, as well as the industry standard buses. The company employs 450 people and expects revenues of $130 million in 1999. ALi stock is traded on the Taiwan OTC. The company is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, and has marketing, engineering and R&D facilities in San Jose, Calif. Further information may be obtained from ALi's web-site (www.ali.com.tw or www.acerlabs.com) or by contacting the company directly. Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc. is a leading developer, licensor and marketer of next-generation technologies for the consumer electronics, computing and entertainment industries. The company's advanced audio technology is incorporated into consumer electronics audio, video and DVD products from global brand leaders including Toshiba, JVC, Panasonic, Hitachi, Samsung, Acer, Sharp, Sanyo, Goldstar, Emerson, Zenith and Proton, in PC multimedia systems and peripherals from Apple, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Fujitsu, Seiko-Epson, NEC, Micron and Labtec, in silicon from Matsushita, ESS, Zoran, Motorola, C-Cube, OnChip Systems, and Acer Laboratories Inc, and in software compatible with MP3 players such as WinAmp and XingMP3. Spatializer stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol "SPAZ." The company is headquartered in Woodland Hills, Calif. and has marketing, engineering and R&D facilities in Santa Clara, Calif. and Tokyo. Further information may be obtained from Spatializer's SEC filings, web-site (www.spatializer.com) or by contacting the company directly. Safe Harbor Act Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain information in this news release, including the comments by Messrs. Birch and Mandell in paragraphs two, five and six are forward looking statements that are based on management's belief, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to management. While the Company believes that its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurances that the Company's financial goals will be realized. Numerous uncertainties and risk factors may affect the Company's actual results and may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the Company. These uncertainties and risk factors include, but are not limited to dependence on new technology and intellectual property, dependence on the PC and consumer electronics industries, dependence on product shipments of third-party licensees, competition and pricing pressures, the timing and realizable value of the MDT technology, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Notices: Desper Products, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc. Spatializer(R) is a registered trademark and N-2-2(TM), enCOMPASS(TM), Vi.B.E(TM) and StreamFX(TM) are trademarks of Desper Products, Inc. SOURCE Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc. (C) 2000 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. prnewswire.com -0- CONTACT: Henry R. Mandell, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc., 818-227-3370, henrym@spatializer.com; or Nancy Hartsoch, Vice President of Acer Laboratories, Inc, 408-544-3100, ext, 3105, nancy_hartsoch@acer.com WEB PAGE: ali.com.tw acerlabs.com spatializer.com GEOGRAPHY: California Taiwan INDUSTRY CODE: CPR ENT SUBJECT CODE: JVN OTC *** end of story *** |