Snow; on LMKI, "The Company plans to re-file its application to the NASDAQ National Market within 60 days after the end of its fiscal year, August 31, 2000 in order to provide the new audit firm with sufficient time to perform the standard year-end audit."
FCM is also starting to vibrate:
Monday July 31, 6:31 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Franklin Telecommunications Corp. to Acquire Symbio-Tech
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. & PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2000--Franklin Telecommunications Corp. (AMEX: FCM - news), a manufacturer of high-speed VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony equipment and a provider of next generation IP-based telecommunications services, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Symbio-Tech, a Phoenix-based provider of Lucent/Excel-based programmable switching solutions and a Lucent/Excel Select Partner.
Excel switches work with a wide variety of products. According to Lucent's web site, Lucent (NYSE:LU - news) acquired Excel Switching Corp. last year in order to gain products which will boost sales to startup phone companies. Industry estimates are that more than 1,000 new phone companies will be offering services by 2003. Excel switches are very desirable to these startup companies because they enable phone service providers to immediately offer additional features such as voice mail, e-mail and Internet telephony. Lucent anticipates that the market for Excel switches will increase at the rate of 20% each year and reach $5 billion by 2003.
``Symbio-Tech develops programmable softswitch applications to operate on Excel switches, as well as additional platforms,'' commented Phil Ericson, president of Franklin. ``We have been working with them to integrate their circuit switching applications with our IP-based data voice gateways (''DVGs``). Acquiring Symbio-Tech represents an important strategic step in Franklin's enterprise-focused business development initiative. It will enable us to deliver robust, high quality-of-service next generation networks and services to Fortune 500 companies. In other words, we will now be able to bring Symbio-Tech's large enterprise customers to the Franklin VoIP `table' for serious expansion on large network deployments.''
``Another interesting factor to consider,'' Ericson pointed out, ``is that there is approximately a one-to-thirty cost of equipment ratio for deploying this kind of network; for every $1 million spent on a circuit switch, about $30 million is spent on VoIP hardware to connect to it. This bodes very well for our core product line of Tempest® DVGs.''
An Excel switch fitted with Symbio-Tech's programmable softswitch applications can service 30,000 ports. Furthermore, Excel switches can be wired together, or daisy-chained, to greatly expand that capacity. Symbio-Tech offers services for numerous applications, both to wire-line and wireless customers.
``One huge advantage,'' Ericson explained, ``is that until now, it took a lot of money to build out a network -- and some decisions had to be made with an element of guesswork involved. Now, with what we can offer together with Symbio-Tech, there's a new blueprint. A new phone company (customer) can start out with a totally switched network, which, at the low end, could cost $150,000 instead of the tens of millions it took five years ago. With his switched network in place, he can now monitor and map his traffic and make an informed, documented decision on where to build out his VoIP network, which will further reduce his costs about 10 times. If he discovers that 20% of his traffic is from Los Angeles to Taiwan, for example, he can quickly deploy Franklin's DVGs between L.A. and Taiwan and essentially reduce his costs for the `A' leg of those calls to almost zero.''
Steve Lee, Franklin's EVP for corporate development, stated: ``This acquisition will strengthen Franklin's software development, engineering, installation and customer service resources. Our collective technology will provide a fully integrated web portal service for billing, customer care and network management. We will be able to offer interactive voice response, multimedia content delivery, transaction capture and reduced off-net costs.''
Grant Simpson, co-founder of Symbio-Tech, added: ``Our applications and programmable switching solutions are an ideal complement to Franklin-powered, next generation circuit/packet networks. The newly formed team will be able to deploy a series of global VoIP networks and next generation services on a scale that would make IP telephony viable for Fortune 500 enterprises and carriers.''
Under the terms of the agreement, all outstanding shares of Symbio-Tech would be exchanged for up to 5 million shares of Franklin's common stock. Symbio-Tech reported unaudited twelve-month revenues of $3.9 million for the period ended December 31, 1999. A definitive agreement is expected by early September 2000.
Suggested links to learn more about this technology: symbio-tech.com lucent-ssg.com
Symbio-Tech is primarily an engineering company with a strong focus on reliable products and exceptional customer service. Symbio-Tech is dedicated to providing our worldwide customer base with all of the technologies available, working in a symbiotic relationship, to provide premier levels of service, reliability, scalability, and performance thereby improving the financial performance, reputations, and peace of mind for our customers.
Franklin Telecommunications Corporation is a maker of high-speed VoIP telephony equipment, which enables high-quality transmissions of data, voice, fax and e-mail over the Internet. Franklin's next generation telephone company subsidiary, FNet, offers global IP-based telecommunications services and complete, interoperable networking system solutions utilizing Franklin equipment and software.
Certain statements in this press release constitute ``forward looking statements'' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements, expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
For additional information about the Companies: www.ftel.com -- for Franklin's IP Telephony Hardware and Equipment
www.fnet.net -- for Franklin's Next Generation IP Telephone Service
www.symbio-tech.com -- for Programmable Switching Solutions |
