Here's is something interesting too. Boy is Intel jumping into some new markets or what?
Intel and Lernout & Hauspie to Form New Venture
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and IEPER, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 1999--
New Entity to Develop E-Commerce and Telephony Solutions
Using L&H's Speech and Language Technologies;
Intel Finalizes $30 Million Investment in L&H
Intel Corporation (Nasdaq:INTC) and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products
(Nasdaq:LHSP, Easdaq:LHSP) (L&H(tm)) today announced that they have signed a
definitive agreement to form a venture to develop e-commerce and telephony
solutions using L&H's speech and language technologies.
The new venture will combine many of L&H's speech and language technologies,
such as L&H's Natural Language Technology(tm) (NLT), intelligent content
management (ICM), machine translation and speech synthesis, such as L&H's
recently announced RealSpeak(tm) technology, with Intel's expertise in
performance computing platforms. The goal is to provide a new level of
e-commerce and telephony solutions for users worldwide.
"L&H has long recognized the integral role speech and language technologies
play in simplifying and enhancing solutions for the Internet, e-commerce and
telephony market segments," said Gaston Bastiaens, president and CEO of L&H.
"Our complete offering of technologies and solutions support the industry's
broadest range of languages and enable us to provide speech and language
software and services to users in these market, and many others worldwide."
"Combining Intel's leadership in the high performance, connected computing
platforms together with L&H's leading technologies presents exciting
possibilities for web-based products and services," said Ron Whittier, senior
vice president and general manager of Intel's Content Group. "A voice interface
presents a natural, intuitive method for people to get the information they
need - via PCs, connected smart devices and the telephone."
"The combined technologies of L&H and Intel can to make e-commerce and other
applications more attractive by supporting natural speech commands,
human-sounding synthesized speech, accurate machine translation and faster,
simpler data query and retrieval," said Jo Lernout, co-founder of L&H. "We
believe that this new venture with Intel builds upon our expertise and that
these technologies will play a role in helping to further solutions for diverse
industries."
New Venture Agreement
The venture will be owned 51 percent by Intel Corporation and 49 percent by
L&H. Each company will have representation on the board of directors. The new
company will be based in L&H's Flanders Valley facility in Ieper, Belgium and
in Santa Clara, California and will be staffed initially by employees from both
companies.
Intel Investment Completed
L&H announced on April 5, 1999, that Intel had signed a letter of intent to
invest $30 million in L&H in the form of non-voting securities and non-interest
bearing convertible into L&H common stock. Today, the companies announced that
Intel had completed its investment.
About Intel
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is also a leading manufacturer of
computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about
Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
About Lernout & Hauspie
Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) is a global leader in advanced speech and language
solutions for vertical markets, computers, automobiles, telecommunications,
embedded products, consumer goods and the Internet. The company is making the
speech user interface (SUI) the keystone of simple, convenient interaction
between humans and technology, and is using advanced translation technology to
break down language barriers. The company provides a wide range of offerings,
including: customized solutions for corporations; core speech technologies
marketed to OEMs; end user and retail applications for continuous speech
products in horizontal and vertical markets; and document creation, human and
machine translation services, Internet translation offerings, and linguistic
tools.
L&H's products and services originate in four basic areas: automatic speech
recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), digital speech and music compression
(SMC) and text-to-text (translation). For more information, please visit
Lernout & Hauspie on the World Wide Web at www.lhsl.com.
BayStar Capital, managed by Lawrence Goldfarb, acted as advisor to L&H on
this transaction.
This Press Release contains forward-looking information, including but not
limited to statements involving the plans, expectations and intentions
concerning the development and commercialization activities of joint venture.
There can be no assurance that actual results will not be materially different
than those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors which could
cause actual results to materially differ from those anticipated in these
forward looking statements include known and unknown risks, including those set
forth below. Joint ventures involve numerous risks, including difficulties
associated with the assimilation of the joint venture partners' technology,
conflicts of interest among the joint venture partners, and the ability of the
joint venture partners to cooperate productively. In addition, the technologies
and businesses of the Joint Venture are subject to the significant risks and
uncertainties generally applicable to high technology start-up companies,
including uncertainty of new product development, budget overruns, project
delays, early stage of development of the targeted markets, uncertainty of
market growth, rapid technological change and intense competition. As a result,
there can be no assurance that the Joint Venture will be successful. L&H
cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date made. L&H expressly disclaims any
obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any
such statements to reflect any change in the L&H's expectations or any change
in events, conditions or circumstance on which any such statement is based.
All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of L&H or
their respective owners.
CONTACT: Lernout & Hauspie
Worldwide PR/IR:
Ellen Spooren, (781) 203-5344
espooren@lhsl.com
or
Corporate Comm. US:
Audrey Pobre, (781) 203-5341
apobre@lhsl.com
or
Media Contact Europe:
Vanessa Richter, (32) 57-22-9518
vrichter@lhsl.com
or
Investor Contact Europe:
Lommaert & Blondeel Consultants
Annemieke Blondeel, (44) 1322-520-180
a.blondeel@dial.pipex.com
or
Intel
Media Contact Europe:
Mark Brailey, (49) 89 99143-500
or
U.S. Media Contact:
Robert Manetta, (408) 765-7082
20:06 EDT MAY 5, 1999
BW1597 MAY 05,1999 17:06 PACIFIC 20:06 EASTERN
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