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Wednesday May 12, 9:20 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Lernout & Hauspie's iTranslator
Service Gains Momentum in Market
Two European ISPs Sign Up for Multilingual Internet Translation Offering
Agreements Will Bring Fast, Cost-Effective Internet Translation Services To
Many Users
IEPER, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1999-- Lernout & Hauspie (NASDAQ:LHSP -
news; EASDAQ:LHSP) (L&H(TM)), a worldwide market leader in speech and linguistic
technologies, products and services, announced today that two European Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) have signed on to offer L&H's iTranslator(TM) Internet translation service to their users. The
agreements, awarded just one month after L&H announced the service which combines its machine
and human translation expertise, point to growing market demand for fast, cost-effective translation
services to facilitate multi-lingual communications. Today's agreements, combined with L&H's first
ISP contract for L&H iTranslator with ESAT, will bring the service to many Internet and intranet
users across Europe.
''We believe that use of the Internet and intranet to facilitate document translation delivery has
unleashed a huge demand from multinational companies and users for translation services,'' said
Florita Mendez, president of L&H's Consulting & Services division. ''Our approach combines the
Web with our unparalleled skills in human and machine translation to give customers a more easily
accessible, reliable and affordable translation solution.''
ISPs To Bring Services to Consumers
L&H has targeted major ISPs worldwide to help market L&H iTranslator to the large base of
potential translation users. In March of this year the company signed on ESAT, one of the largest
ISPs in Ireland. Today it announced agreements with two other European ISPs: Finnish-based
Saunalahden Serveri and Dutch-based World Online. Both ISPs will offer L&H iTranslator to their
subscriber base.
World Online International is active throughout Europe and expects in 1999 that it will have more
than one million individual subscribers and 30,000 business users, making it Europe's largest ISP.
The company plans to offer L&H iTranslator services in Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland,
Spain and Denmark and the countries it is starting up like Sweden, Germany, UK, South Africa,
Tjech Republic, Italy and Portugal. World Online International is a joint-venture of the Sandoz
Family-Foundation, Reggeborgh Beheer and Telfort; which is a joint venture of the Dutch Railways
and British Telecom.
Saunalahden Serveri is Finland's second largest Internet service provider with more than 70,000
customers. The company focuses strongly on developing new Internet services and applying new
technologies.
L&H iTranslator Service
L&H iTranslator Service is a complete solution that employs L&H's expertise in human translation
with its award-winning machine translation software to provide fast, accurate translation of electronic
documents over the Internet. L&H believes the administrative cost and turn-around time for the
service is more affordable than competitive services because it leverages the Internet to help facilitate
document and cost estimate delivery and receipt. The service, which is ideal for documents in a
variety of sizes, is available to one time and repeat customers.
The service offers human translation as well as machine translation (which provides a ''gist''
translation) of documents, e-mails and Web pages. Human translation will be available in all major
languages, including Western and Eastern European, South American and Asian languages.
Specialized language domains for vertical markets, such as finance, computers and medicine, help
increase accuracy of machine translation.
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.lhs.com.
This press release contains forward-looking information, including statements regarding L&H's plans,
objectives, expectations and intentions. Such statements include, without limitation, discussions
relating to the expected completion of development and commercial introduction of certain products.
Readers are cautioned that such forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, including,
without limitation, the risk that L&H's technology will not perform as anticipated, and the general
risks associated with the intense competition and rapid technological change characteristic of the
speech technology markets. The forward-looking statements are also subject to risks set forth in
L&H's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements
contained herein speak only as of the date of this Report. L&H expressly disclaims any obligation or
undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change
in L&H's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such
statement is based.
Lernout & Hauspie can be found on the World Wide Web at www.lhsl.com. All product names and
trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of L&H and the respective companies.
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
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