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To: 2MAR$ who wrote (75)5/8/2000 12:47:00 AM
From: 2MAR$  Respond to of 762
 
OPTV...OpenTV Reports (4/27) Record First-Quarter Financial Results
biz.yahoo.com

Leading Worldwide Provider of Digital Interactive Television Software Posts Revenue Increase of 87 Percent
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2000--OpenTV (Nasdaq:OPTV - news; Amsterdam Stock Exchange:OPTV), the leading worldwide provider of software to enable digital interactive television, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2000.

For the first quarter of 2000, revenues were $10.9 million, an 87 percent increase from the $5.9 million reported for the first quarter of 1999, and a 30 percent increase from the $8.4 million reported for the fourth quarter of 1999.

-- Royalties for the first quarter of 2000 were $7.7 million, an
increase of 164 percent from $2.9 million in the first quarter of
1999, and an increase of 63 percent from $4.7 million reported in
the fourth quarter of 1999.

-- License fees were $1.3 million for the first quarter of 2000, an
increase of 265 percent from $0.4 million in the first quarter of
1999, and an increase of 24 percent from $1.1 million in the
fourth quarter of 1999.

-- Services and other revenue for the first quarter of 2000 were $1.9
million, a decrease of 26 percent from $2.6 million for the first
quarter of 1999, and a decrease of 26 percent from $2.6 million in
the fourth quarter of 1999. The decrease in services and other
revenue was attributable to the company's shift in emphasis from
customer-funded development arrangements to revenue sharing
application initiatives.

Jan Steenkamp, president and chief executive officer of OpenTV, said: ``We are very pleased by our strong first-quarter results. OpenTV's momentum continues and is strengthened by the growth of digital interactive television worldwide. We are also experiencing an excellent response from consumers in markets where interactive TV services have been launched. Our progress this quarter also includes new partnerships with network operators that are launching digital interactive television services, as well as with several set-top box manufacturers and content developers.''

OpenTV's pro-forma operating expenses, excluding non-cash and non-recurring expenses, were $16.1 million in the first quarter of 2000, a 136 percent increase from $6.8 million in the first quarter of 1999, and a 22 percent increase from $13.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1999. As planned, the company has significantly increased its research and development expenditures, especially in its applications business, and has expanded its worldwide sales presence to address the rapidly developing global interactive television market opportunity. OpenTV's expanded sales organization won deployment commitments from several new network operators that will generate revenue in future periods. Over the past six months, OpenTV has increased its headcount from 187 to 283 employees. OpenTV also incurred a non-recurring technology development expense of $1.3 million, non-cash expenses of $0.4 million for amortization of purchased technology, $3.2 million for stock-based compensation, and $23.4 million for warrant expense. Including these non-cash and non-recurring charges, OpenTV's operating expenses were $44.4 million for the first quarter of 2000, as compared to $7.0 million in the first quarter of 1999 and $93.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1999.

Excluding the impact of non-cash and non-recurring charges, OpenTV's pro-forma net loss for the first quarter of 2000 was $2.4 million, compared to a pro-forma net loss of $1.0 million in the first quarter of 1999 and $4.0 million for the fourth quarter of 1999. This translates to pro-forma diluted net loss per share of 5 cents in the first quarter of 2000 compared to 3 cents in the first quarter of 1999 and 10 cents for the fourth quarter of 1999. Including the impact of non-cash and non-recurring charges, the company reported a net loss of $30.7 million for the first quarter of 2000, $1.2 million for the first quarter of 1999 and $113.1 million for the fourth quarter of 1999. This translates to a diluted net loss per share of 68 cents for the first quarter of 2000, 4 cents for the first quarter of 1999 and $2.93 for the fourth quarter of 1999.

As of March 31, 2000, OpenTV had cash and short-term investments of $153.3 million, total assets of $203.9 million, total liabilities of $13.8 million and shareholders' equity of $190.1 million.

2000 First-Quarter Highlights

OpenTV's results in the first quarter of 2000 included a number of significant achievements. Highlights for the quarter are as follows:

Spyglass Acquisition

-- On March 26, 2000, OpenTV announced a definitive agreement to
merge with Spyglass Inc. (Nasdaq:SPYG - news). The company believes that
this merger will strengthen OpenTV's position in the interactive
television software market by extending OpenTV's software product
to include Web browsing. OpenTV will be able to provide
Internet-based technology and content in addition to its core
interactive video technology, and to deliver a platform that is
adaptable to any standard that may develop in the marketplace. In
addition, the company believes that this merger will allow OpenTV
to expand its interactive television professional services
business by accessing Spyglass' management expertise, personnel
and current base of professional services customers. The company
believes that upon completion of the Spyglass merger, OpenTV will
be able to provide an interactive television software platform,
supported by a professional services team, that has greater
functionality and features that will drive additional deployments
and opportunities for accelerated revenue growth.

Under the merger agreement, OpenTV will acquire all of Spyglass'
outstanding stock in a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction.
Spyglass stockholders will receive 0.7236 OpenTV Series A Ordinary
Shares in exchange for each share of Spyglass common stock.
Spyglass stockholders, option holders and warrant holders will
receive approximately 14.9 million OpenTV shares and own
approximately 18 percent of the combined company's stock on a
fully diluted basis.

OpenTV Joint Venture with EchoStar

-- OpenTV formed a joint venture with EchoStar Communications
(Nasdaq:DISH - news) in February 2000 to develop a low-cost, one box
solution that includes digital interactive television and
hard-drive functionality in a set-top box for the mass TV-viewing
market. The company expects that this partnership will ultimately
provide interactive television viewers with a cost-effective
product, with broad functionality, that includes features such as
video-on-demand, entertainment services and e-commerce
capabilities.

OpenTV purchased a 50 percent interest in the joint venture from
Echostar, in exchange for approximately 2.25 million shares of
OpenTV Class A Ordinary Shares and contribution of a non-exclusive
license to certain OpenTV intellectual property. The shares have
been placed in an escrow account until certain milestones,
relating to the deployment of OpenTV-enabled set-top boxes, have
been met by EchoStar.

OpenAdvantage Program

-- OpenTV's developer program was launched in the first quarter and
has already secured more than 300 independent OpenTV application
developers from around the world. The OpenAdvantage program
encourages independent developers to write applications for
OpenTV's "open platform." The expanding OpenAdvantage membership
continues to drive interactive television deployment for the
company, as well as generate incremental revenues from the sales
of authoring tools, training and other products.

Worldwide Network Operators

Four additional network operators committed to deploy interactive television using OpenTV technology, bringing the total number of digital television network operator commitments to 28.

-- Quiero Television, Spain's first digital terrestrial network,
chose OpenTV as a software provider for interactive television
services, which is expected to expand OpenTV's reach into the
Spanish digital television market in addition to its existing
relationship with Via Digital. Quiero Television has indicated
that it intends to launch OpenTV-enabled interactive services to
its customers in the second quarter of 2000. Quiero is the second
digital terrestrial network operator in Europe, in addition to
Senda, the platform operator of the Swedish digital terrestrial
network, to select OpenTV's technology.

-- Galaxy Latin America (GLA) selected OpenTV's interactive
television software solutions for its DIRECTV(TM) service in Latin
America and the Caribbean. GLA is the exclusive provider of
DIRECTV in Latin America, where it reaches 27 countries and 96
percent of the potential market. This recently announced
relationship gives OpenTV an initial presence in Latin America and
the Caribbean and brings it closer to achieving its vision of
providing globally accepted end-to-end digital interactive
television solutions.

-- PrimaCom AG, Germany's third-largest independent cable network
operator, chose OpenTV as its software provider for digital
interactive television services. PrimaCom plans to launch its
first digital interactive television services in Leipzig in May.
The interactive services, powered by OpenTV, will later be made
available to PrimaCom's 1.35 million household customer base
through its advanced broadband hybrid-fibre-coax cable network,
which will be extended across Germany.

-- E-Vision, (Emirates Cable TV and Multimedia LLC), the United Arab
Emirates' first digital cable television network, has chosen
OpenTV for its interactive television services platform. Siemens,
a worldwide leading systems integrator, won the bid to provide the
United Arab Emirates with the countries' first digital cable TV
network and led the selection of OpenTV's digital interactive TV
solution for E-Vision. E-Vision is a subsidiary of Etisalat -- the
United Arab Emirates' (UAE) national provider of telecommunication
products and services. E-Vision's initial launch phase covers a
total of 20,000 homes and businesses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Sharjah will be added soon followed by a rapid expansion of the
network nationwide, which encompasses an estimated total of
500,000 homes.

Worldwide Applications Partners

OpenTV also announced several partnerships to develop interactive television applications. Under the agreements, OpenTV will share with its partners the recurring revenues generated by the applications.

-- OpenTV has partnered with Commerce.TV to integrate the OpenTV
software platform with Commerce.TV's high-volume transaction
processing network to be deployed in the United States and Canada.
Together, the companies intend to offer cable and satellite
operators an easy-to-use, enhanced television service at no cost
to subscribers, and thereby create a better viewing experience.

-- Through a strategic alliance with Health Hero Network, OpenTV
intends to bring interactive health content and services to
interactive television consumers throughout the world. As a part
of OpenTV's vision to continually enhance the viewer experience,
OpenTV and the Health Hero Network intend to create the first
television "Interactive Health Channel," which will offer
personalized health content, community and commerce services.

-- OpenTV entered into an applications development agreement with
Pacific Digital Media Corp. (PDMC), a digital network operator
planning to launch a new satellite-based pay-TV service in Taiwan
later this year. Under the terms of the agreement, OpenTV will
develop a suite of applications for PDMC and share in a portion of
the revenue derived from the applications.

Worldwide Technology Partners

OpenTV recently announced the following technology partnerships in connection with its efforts to enhance the flexibility and adaptability of its interactive television software platform:

-- Nokia Multimedia Terminals Oy and Philips Digital Networks BV have
extended their relationship with OpenTV with new agreements to
license EN2, OpenTV's next generation interactive television
operating system for digital set-top boxes.

-- Hughes Network Systems, a division of Hughes Electronics with
headquarters in the United States, agreed to port OpenTV's EN2
software to its set-top boxes.

-- Korea's TechSan Electronics Co. Ltd., Tae Young Telstar Co. Ltd.
and Hyundai Digital Technology Co. Ltd. also agreed to port
OpenTV's EN2 software to their set-top boxes. OpenTV has now
developed partnerships with 29 set-top box manufacturers from
around the world.

-- Furthering its U.S. cable initiative, OpenTV is in the process
integrating its set-top box software with Motorola's conditional
access system. Philips Digital Networks has also integrated its
Cryptoworks conditional access system with OpenTV. OpenTV is now
integrated with seven different conditional access systems.

Company Expansion

-- OpenTV expanded its global presence with the opening of new
offices in Munich, Germany and Madrid, Spain, increasing the
company's total office count to nine worldwide.

About OpenTV

OpenTV is the leading worldwide provider of software that enables digital interactive television. OpenTV provides a complete end-to-end solution for the development and delivery of interactive services via digital satellite, cable and terrestrial broadcast. OpenTV set-top box software has been shipped with or installed in more than 6.1 million digital set-top boxes worldwide. To date, OpenTV software solutions have been selected by 28 television network operators worldwide, including British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in the United Kingdom and TPS in France. EchoStar's DISH Network(TM) is scheduled to launch interactive services utilizing OpenTV software in the United States in 2000.

The OpenTV set-top box software is licensed to 29 digital set-top box manufacturers, and OpenTV's authoring tools are licensed to more than 100 independent developers and content and service providers. OpenTV is a member of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project, CableLabs OpenCable initiative and ATSC DASE. OpenTV is a licensee of Personal Java(TM) from Sun Microsystems.

OpenTV is supported by investments from eight leading Internet, broadcast and broadband companies including America Online (NYSE: AOL - news), General Instrument Corp. (NYSE:GIC - news), Liberty Digital (Nasdaq:LDIG - news), News Corp. (NYSE:NWS - news), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX - news) and Shaw Communications (NYSE:SJR - news) in addition to Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW - news) and MIH Ltd. (Nasdaq:MIHL - news).

Worldwide headquarters for OpenTV is located in Mountain View, with offices in Paris; London; Madrid, Spain; Munich, Germany; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo; Beijing; and Sydney, Australia. Information on OpenTV is available at www.opentv.com.

Except for historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated herein, including but not limited to the closing of the merger with Spyglass Inc., the risk that OpenTV and Spyglass (the ``Combined Company'') businesses will not be integrated successfully and unanticipated costs of such integration, failure of the Combined Company to retain and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees, failure of the Combined Company to manage its growth, failure of the Combined Company to successfully manage its changing relationship with customers, suppliers and strategic solution center customers, the timely development, acceptance and pricing of new products and services using OpenTV enabled solutions, the impact of competitive products and services, and the pricing of those competitive products and services, and other risk factors detailed in the Registration Statement on Form F-1 and other documents filed from time to time by OpenTV Corp. with the Securities and Exchange Commission. OpenTV undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

(c)1999 OpenTV Inc. All rights reserved. OpenTV, OpenAuthor, OpenTV Runtime, OpenStreamer and the OpenTV logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of OpenTV Inc. in the United States and other countries. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

OPENTV CORP.
Unaudited Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except share and per-share amounts)

Quarters Ended
March 31, Dec. 31, March 31,
2000 1999 1999
Revenues:
Royalties $ 7,705 $ 4,721 $ 2,915
License fees 1,312 1,060 359
Services and other 1,928 2,613 2,586
Total revenues 10,945 8,394 5,860

Operating expenses:
Services 1,845 2,499 1,331
Research and development 8,179 4,909 2,228
Sales and marketing 5,028 3,814 2,174
General and administrative 2,390 2,037 1,079
Amortization of intangible 382 383 0
Amortization of
stock compensation 3,224 10,777 214
Non-cash warrant expense 23,356 68,883 0
Total operating expenses 44,404 93,302 7,026

Loss from operations (33,459) (84,908) (1,166)

Other income/(expense), net 2,744 877 (65)
Minority interest 0 2,153 0

Net loss $ (30,715) $ (81,878) $ (1,231)

Preferred stock
deemed dividend 0 31,250 0

Net loss attributable to
ordinary shares $ (30,715) $ (113,128) $ (1,231)

Shares used in computing
net loss per share,
basic and diluted 45,236,028 38,646,742 33,830,583

Net loss per share,
basic and diluted $ (0.68) $ (2.93) $ (0.04)

-0-

OPENTV CORP.
Pro-Forma Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except share and per-share amounts)

Quarters Ended
March 31, Dec. 31, March 31,
2000 1999 1999
Revenues:
Royalties $ 7,705 $ 4,721 $ 2,915
License fees 1,312 1,060 359
Services and other 1,928 2,613 2,586
Total revenues 10,945 8,394 5,860

Operating expenses:
Services 1,845 2,499 1,331
Research and development 6,842 4,909 2,228
Sales and marketing 5,028 3,814 2,174
General and administrative 2,390 2,037 1,079
Total operating expenses 16,105 13,259 6,812

Loss from operations (5,160) (4,865) (952)

Other income/(expense),
net 2,744 877 (65)

Net loss $ (2,416) $ (3,988) $ (1,017)

Shares used in computing
net loss per share,
basic and diluted 45,236,028 38,646,742 33,830,583

Net loss per share,
basic and diluted $ (0.05) $ (0.10) $ (0.03)

Note: The above unaudited pro forma combined consolidated statements
of operations exclude the effects of the following (in thousands):

-- One-time, non-recurring research and development fee of $2,600, of
which $1,337 was amortized during the quarter ended March 31,
2000.

-- Amortization of intangibles of $383 and $382 for the quarters
ended Dec. 31, 1999 and March 31, 2000, respectively.

-- Amortization of non-cash, stock based compensation of $214,
$10,777 and $3,224 for the quarters ended March 31, 1999, Dec. 31,
1999, and March 31, 2000, respectively.

-- Additional General Instrument non-cash performance warrant expense
related to the warrant's variable accounting treatment and
quarterly amortization totaling $5,032 and $23,356 for the
quarters ended Dec. 31, 1999 and March 31, 2000, respectively.

-- Non-Cash warrant expense of $63,851 related to the warrants issued
to strategic investors in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1999.

-- Minority stockholder's interest of $2,153 for the quarter ended
Dec. 31, 1999.

-- Preferred stock deemed dividend of $31,250 for the quarter ended
Dec. 31, 1999.

-0-

OPENTV CORP.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(amounts in thousands of U.S. dollars)

March 31, Dec. 31,
2000 1999
Assets

Cash and short-term investments $153,251 $186,535
Accounts receivable, net 9,909 6,234
Prepaid expenses and other
current assets 3,061 1,698
Long-term marketable securities 14,255 0
Property and equipment, net 6,360 5,025
Long-term private equity
investments 10,000 0
Other assets, net 7,098 7,298
Total assets $203,934 $206,790

Liabilities and shareholders' equity

Accounts payable and accrued
liabilities $9,285 $8,665
Deferred revenue 4,528 3,564
Total liabilities 13,813 12,229

Shareholders' equity:
Total shareholders' equity 190,121 194,561
Total liabilities and
shareholders' equity $203,934 $206,790

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
OpenTV, Mountain View
Steve Polcyn, 650/429-5498 (Investors/Financial Media)
spolcyn@opentv.com
Carolyn Bretschneider, 650/429-5575
(Trade/Business Media)
carolyn@opentv.com
or
Kekst and Company, New York
Michael Freitag, 212/521-



To: 2MAR$ who wrote (75)5/8/2000 8:04:00 AM
From: Jack Hartmann  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 762
 
If PHCM ever made a profit, it would be running like QCOM.
Jack



To: 2MAR$ who wrote (75)5/9/2000 10:03:00 PM
From: 2MAR$  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 762
 
5/9 LHSP... Lernout & Hauspie Reports Record Revenues and Strong Earnings for First Quarter 2000
biz.yahoo.com

Company Achieves Revenues of $110.7 million and EPS of $0.37

Before Goodwill Amortization and Exceptional Items

Lernout & Hauspie (Nasdaq: LHSP, Easdaq: LHSP) (L&H), a worldwide market leader in speech and language technologies, products and services, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2000.

For the first quarter of 2000, L&H's total revenues were $110.7 million, an increase of 57% over reported revenues of $70.7 million for the first quarter of 1999. The company attributes the increased revenues to continued growth in telephony, enterprise solutions and embedded market strengths. Approximately 74% of the revenue increase was attributed to organic growth.

Net income before exceptional items for the first quarter of 2000 reached $12.2 million, or $.19 per share on 63.9 million average diluted shares outstanding which is a 75% increase when compared to $7.0 million in net income, or $0.12 per share on 58.1 million average diluted shares outstanding for the first quarter of 1999. The excluded exceptional amount in Q1 2000 was a $4.2 million net benefit (mainly unrealized currency exchange gain). Earnings per share, EPS before goodwill amortization, were $0.37 compared to $0.24 during the first quarter of 1999.

Revenue for the first quarter 2000 included approximately $58.9 million from the company's Technologies and Solutions division, including $31.0 million from Telephony and Enterprise Solutions; $28.0 million from the Applications division and $23.8 million from the Globalization and Internet Translation Division, $5.5 million of which was Internet-related revenue. Internet-related activity within its Globalization and Internet Translation Division reached a record 23% of the division's revenues, signaling the division's successful evolution to an Internet focus. In Q1 2000, Technologies and Solutions division signed 86 new contracts.

``As we enter the new millennium L&H continues its growth not only with the development and introduction of leading, next generation speech and language solutions but also by laying the foundation for future growth through strategic acquisitions like Dictaphone and through the pending acquisition of Dragon,'' said Gaston Bastiaens, president and CEO of L&H. ``We believe that we are creating sound infrastructures that can tackle the rapid growth opportunities in the Globalization and Internet Translation, Healthcare, and Telephony and Enterprise Solutions markets.''

L&H took many significant steps in Q1 to advance its strategy to seize leadership in the healthcare, telephony and Internet markets -- most notably its acquisition of Dictaphone. Combined, the acquisitions bring L&H additional technology and R&D expertise, seasoned management and strong customer bases, all of which can be leveraged to expand and enhance its position in key, high growth industries. The company also signed a number of contracts in its key markets, created strategic alliances and introduced prototype technologies -- all serving to increase the role of speech and language technology for diverse markets.

``The company is now ready to take on the next phase in our strategy: bringing speech into the mainstream,'' said Jo Lernout, co-founder and chairman of L&H. ``We will address that opportunity through the development and commercialization of speech platforms, such as our NAK technology, that allows vendors to quickly and easily speech-enable a broad range of consumer devices, thus supporting the widespread adoption of speech as a user interface.''

Highlights of the Quarter

Agreements Signed to Acquire Dragon and Dictaphone

L&H's acquisition of Dictaphone, which closed on May 8, 2000 builds L&H's product and management resources and its customer base in the medical dictation arena and the telecommunications market. The management teams for both companies have worked diligently to integrate both organizations' operations in order to more quickly penetrate within the healthcare, telephony, call center and legal dictation markets.

John Duerden, formerly chairman and CEO of Dictaphone, will become president of a newly created Division. The Division will include: Dictaphone's call center activities integrated with L&H's advanced data mining technologies; the combination of Dictaphone's Interactive Voice Solutions with L&H's PC Applications group; and a newly formed Consumer Group comprised of L&H's embedded, PC/multi-media technologies, and wireless and mobile solutions (NAK); as well as the companies' combined healthcare solutions. In addition, the company has established a separate entity focused on transcription and Internet-hosted services for the healthcare market.

During Q1 L&H also signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dragon Systems Inc. of Newton, Mass. By combining resources, L&H and Dragon plan to create a ``brain trust'' that is expected to use the best of the technologies developed in both companies to work on projects designed to accelerate the use of speech and language in emerging and mainstream markets. The completion of the acquisition is subject to customary conditions to closing including obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals.

Shares Sold in Shelf Registration

In January 2000, L&H filed a shelf registration statement to sell up to $150 million of its common stock. In that month, the company issued a total of 1,142,857 shares of its common stock for $52.5 per share to BT&T of Switzerland, Acqua Wellington North American Equities Fund, Ltd and KBC Asset Management of Belgium. The company received net proceeds of $58.3 million after expenses. L&H also completed on March 31, 2000 and April 3, 2000, additional draw downs from the shelf registration, with two of the parties from the first issuance. The first additional tranche of 360,000 shares was issued at $111.50 for total proceeds of $40.1 million and the second additional tranche of 250,000 shares was issued at $113.00 for total proceeds of $28.2 million. L&H is using the net proceeds from the sale to help support ongoing preparations to create separate entities for its Healthcare Solutions, Globalization and Internet Translation, and Enterprise and Telephony Solutions business groups. It also expects to use the proceeds to provide working capital and funds for its recent healthcare acquisitions and for other general corporate purposes.

NLU Integral to Healthcare Solutions and Call Centers

L&H also announced today that it has acquired Interactive Systems Inc. (ISI), a Pittsburgh-based speech and language technology developer, for approximately $8.9 million in cash with a $4 million earn out over 2 years. The assets from this acquisition will provide L&H with additional expertise with which to further natural language understanding (NLU), a technology that figures prominently in data mining, data management, audio mining, clinical language understanding and other processes needed for comprehensive healthcare and telecommunications solutions.

ISI, formed by leading researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Karlsruhe University, is widely recognized for its world-class research and development engineering staff that has been advised by Alex Waibel, a prominent speech and language scientist associated with CMU. L&H expects to leverage ISI's R&D staff and its technological expertise, including its strengths in robust parsing, dialogue management and conversational speech technology, for use not only in its healthcare and telecommunications solutions but also in translation and Internet services. L&H also announced today that Dr. Alex Waibel would join Raymond Kurzweil as a member of the L&H technology advisory board. Dr. Janet Baker will chair the technology advisory board (pending the completion of the Dragon Systems acquisition).

Technologies & Solutions Builds Assets

During Q1 L&H enhanced its existing speech technologies and solutions by acquiring speech engineering resources from Matra Nortel Communications, a speech processing developer widely recognized for its noise cancellation and other technologies, and all of the assets of Elan Informatique, a France-based text-to-speech (TTS) technology provider. The acquisitions will not only enhance L&H technologies but will also broaden L&H's European customer base and provide the company with increased research and development resources and expertise.

In January, L&H joined with several entertainment industry leaders to form NightStorm Media (NSM), a joint venture in which L&H will localize its technologies and solutions for the Korean market and adapt them to the educational and entertainment field.

Telephony & Enterprise Contracts Grow

During Q1, L&H signed several contracts in which it licensed its technologies to developers for use in telephony market applications. Key Q1 contracts included Lucent Technologies' license of L&H's RealSpeak(TM) text-to-speech technology for use with its new Enhanced Media Resource Server (eMRS), a next-generation platform for deploying Internet and calling services. Hung Chang Co., Ltd. signed, during Q1, under which it licensed L&H's speech technologies in multiple languages to develop speaker verification and reservation applications. L&H RealSpeak(TM) has also been licensed by Dialogic©, an Intel Company, to be integrated with its CT Media server software for Windows NT©. Additional Q1 telephony contracts include MailCall, OneBox, InterVoice Bright, and BeVocal.

Application Division Demonstrates LVR for StrongARM Platform and New Products

While at the DEMO 2000 conference in February, L&H demonstrated its FIRST prototype software for handheld devices that has a large vocabulary continuous speech dictation engine to easily send and receive e-mail, surf the Web and conduct e-commerce transactions. NAK's open architecture should allow for portability to the major operating systems such as Windows CE, Linux, Symbian, etc.

During Q1 L&H's Applications Division launched several new products for the consumer market. The company showcased for the first time its L&H(TM) Kurzweil 3000(TM) for the Mac©, extending the benefits of the innovative reading tutor software to the millions of current Apple computer users. It also announced version 5.0 of its L&H(TM) Kurzweil 1000, adding the award-winning L&H(TM) RealSpeak(TM) human sounding text-to-speech (TTS) and other features to the reading software program for the blind.

The company shipped version 7 of L&H(TM) Power Translator© Pro translation software with enhancements such as the addition of L&H(TM) RealSpeak(TM), and integration with Microsoft© Office 2000 products.

Medical Market Momentum

L&H's Healthcare Solutions Group signed contracts in the first quarter for its PowerScribe©Radiology solution with: Brockton Hospital, Brockton Mass.; Lenox Hill Radiology and Medical Imaging, New York, NY; Children's Hospital, Seattle Wash., and Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, Plainfield NJ. The group also signed Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn. for L&H(TM)Clinical Reporter(TM)in the Emergency Department.

Globalization and Internet Translation: Increases Internet Focus

During Q1 L&H's Globalization and Internet Translation Division increased its emphasis on Internet-related offerings and business, moving it closer to readiness for separate entity status. The division named Jeff Hopkins, as vice president of development. Mr. Hopkins is an expert in language technologies and Intelligent Content Management. The division also launched availability of its Internet translation services through Microsoft's Office Update web site (http://www.officeupdate.com), providing millions of users with quick, easy access to L&H's machine translation services.

Further emphasis was placed on Internet activity as all of the company's iTranslator(TM) Internet translation service offerings were transferred to the Globalization and Internet Translation Division from other groups and divisions. As a result, the division has begun to market and sell a complete family of iTranslator services and solutions.

Contracts

During the first quarter, the Globalization and Internet Translation Division signed contracts for localization and/or translation in a wide range of languages with, among others: FIAT Torino, InterClubNet, Arburg, SEAT, Deutsche Isuzu, VDO Car Communication, Friedrich Grohe, and CMPnet Asia.

Increased SAIL Labs Investment to Enhance NLU for Translation

In order to support the rapid deployment of Machine Translation over the Internet, as well as the broader requirements of the company in the field of Natural Language Understanding, the company announced today that it has increased its holdings in SAIL Labs. SAIL Labs is a research and development lab specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), natural language understanding (NLU), machine translation (MT), Advanced Natural Language Search Technology and a host of other advanced technologies. L&H has held a minority interest in SAIL Labs since 1999 while a consortium of other investors held a majority interest. With today's announcement L&H has increased its holdings to approximately 30%.

SAIL Labs, which has facilities in Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich and Vienna, employs approximately 190 engineers, scientists and linguists' expert in the field of speech, artificial intelligence and language technology.

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 or www.lhsl.com.

This News Release contains forward-looking information that involves risks and uncertainties, including statements about the company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. Such statements include, without limitation, discussions concerning the company's strategic direction, new product introductions and developments and market growth. Readers are cautioned forward looking statements include known and unknown risks, including uncertainty of new product development, the risk that newly introduced products may contain undetected errors or defects or otherwise not perform as anticipated, early stage of development of the speech, language and medical information technology markets, the company's ability to predict accurately the demand for its products in these emerging markets and to develop strategies to address these markets successfully, the company's ability to manage its growth and changing business, the company's ability to successfully integrate the operations of Dictaphone, the retention of key technical and other personnel, risks associated with the financial leverage associated with the company's assumption and/or repayment of Dictaphone indebtedness, currency and other risks related to international operations, rapid technological change and intense competition, as well as other risks set forth in L&H's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this News Release. The company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstance on which any such statement is based.

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