DecisionLink and Inepar Join Forces With Iridium
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2001--DecisionLink, Inc. (OTCBB:DLNK), announced today that it has formed a new joint-venture company with Inepar S.A. of Brazil to market DecisionLink's wide range of end-to-end monitoring solutions for the global industrial, commercial and environmental industries utilizing the Iridium Satellite service.
The new company, named Inepar DecisionLink Corp. (IDL), has entered into an agreement with Iridium Satellite LLC and has become a Global Top-Tier Service Provider for the new Iridium group. IDL is owned 51% by DecisionLink, Inc. and is to be headquartered in DecisionLink's Carrollton, Texas facilities.
Inepar is one of the owners of Iridium Satellite LLC. Inepar was a licensee of the old Iridium in South America. Inepar is contributing its substantial infrastructure and existing business for the South American Iridium market as assets to the joint venture. This will allow IDL to produce immediate cash flow to the company. Inepar and DecisionLink have a previous agreement to market Orbcomm satellite services in parts of South America and that business will also be transferred to the joint venture and expanded to include all of South America. DecisionLink will contribute its technology, monitoring and reporting applications and technical resources to IDL.
Dan Colussy, Chairman of Iridium, said, "Iridium has a very targeted focus on industrial and government markets with operations in remote areas, and recognizes the need to secure experienced distributors to reach these customers. IDL is actively involved with providing satellite services, and will be an integral and important member of our distribution channel."
Geoff Hewitt, Chairman and CEO of DecisionLink, said, "This is a very significant development for the Company. It dramatically expands our reach and allows us to offer global solutions to global enterprises. We have aligned ourselves with whom we believe to be key players in the global development of satellite telemetry and have positioned ourselves to play a key role in its development."
Peter Lagergren, President of IDL, said, "We see that by combining Iridium's service with our products it will take us into global market areas with very large installed bases. Markets include monitoring and control of storage tanks, compressors and pipelines, vendor managed inventories, environmental monitoring and private voice networks for global industries such as oil and gas and petrochemicals. We expect that the combination of our proven data transfer products and the new marketing emphasis of Iridium with its superior service provider support, its commitment to customer service and its lower cost structure, will allow us to see significant market penetration."
Helcio Gaertner, Director of Inepar S.A., said, "Inepar's projects, services and experience in developing countries, combined with DecisionLink's cutting edge technology made possible the creation of a company capable of offering efficient and quick 'Truly Mobile, Truly Global' solutions for private network systems, environmental control and remote monitoring. Our ongoing projects are very exciting."
David Peachey, President of DecisionLink, Inc., said, "The Iridium service is complementary to our Orbcomm capabilities and gives us global coverage for both data and voice for large industrial customers. I am particularly excited that we can offer those customers secure and private communications from anywhere in the world through our Satellite Data Control Center and the Internet."
IDL will supply secure private satellite networks for data and voice for large multinational and regional industrial or commercial customers. DecisionLink has developed a Satellite Data Control Center for IDL. It is designed for installation at a customer's local or regional office at a cost that is substantially below normal earth station installations. It integrates IDL's real-time asset monitoring with Iridium satellite telephone services without having to be routed through a public telephone network.
For data collection and machine control IDL's clients will have independent global access to field or mobile installations. The IDL Satellite Data Control Centers ("SatDacc(SM)") provide an IP portal so that customers can connect through the Internet to assets anywhere in the world without the need for existing ground infrastructure. IDL's software allows our clients to dynamically configure and operate their remote assets and Web pages regardless of location.
IDL is introducing a variety of inexpensive Iridium based products that form the "front end" of our LeoLink(TM) data gathering and machine control system. The SatDacc(SM) also provides our customers with the ability to easily and inexpensively field a private voice network on a global basis. This voice capability is seamlessly integrated with the clients existing telephony networks and provides global roaming capabilities to field personnel. |
