Dragon Systems bought by Lernout & Hauspie
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bloomberg.com
Lernout & Hauspie Acquires Dragon Systems for $593 Mln in Stock
Ieper, Belgium, March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Lernout & Hauspie
Speech Products NV said it acquired Dragon Systems Inc., its
leading U.S. competitor, for about $593 million in stock to form
the biggest maker of speech-recognition software for consumers.
The Belgian company paid about 5.45 million shares of its
stock, which closed yesterday on Nasdaq at 108 3/4 per share.
Privately held, Newton, Massachusetts-based Dragon is the largest
U.S. maker of speech-recognition software; Lernout & Hauspie is
the largest in Europe.
Lernout & Hauspie expects demand for speech recognition to
increase with the growing use of mobile phones and other hand-held
devices to access the Internet. The company said the acquisition
boosts its team of scientists and engineers and allows it to
combine the best technologies of both companies to produce systems
that are increasingly effective and easy to use.
``By combining our talent with Dragon Systems, we are pooling
some of the best speech and language minds in the industry to
create speech solutions that are even more user friendly and are
applicable for broader, more consumer-oriented markets than every
before,' said Lernout & Hauspie Chief Executive Gaston Bastiaens.
The Belgian used about 8 percent of its total market
capitalization to make the acquisition, said Carl Dammekens,
Lernout & Hauspie chief financial officer.
Dragon had a net loss of about $22 million on revenue of
about $60 million for its fiscal 1999.
The combined company faces competition from larger companies,
such as International Business Machines Corp. and Philips
Electronics NV.
¸2000 Bloomberg L.P.
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