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Lots of news on LHSPF today!!!>>>>>>>>>
IEPER, Belgium and BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- March 1,
1999--
Languages to be Developed for Wide Variety of Applications,
Including Telephony, Internet, Education and Dictation
Lernout & Hauspie (NASDAQ:LHSPF)(EASDAQ:LHSP) (L&H(tm)), a worldwide
market leader in speech and linguistic technologies, products and
services, today announced that it has entered into strategic
relationships to initiate development programs for several new languages
for use in a variety of speech and language applications. Languages
covered by these programs include Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech,
Slovak, Greek, Farsi and Bahassa. The company is also in the process of
initiating programs for other languages such as Turkish, Hindu and
Tamil.
L&H currently markets, or has under development, text to speech
(TTS), small and large vocabulary automatic speech recognition (ASR),
machine translation and other speech and language components in 12
languages (US and UK English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch,
Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic). The company also
recently announced that it had entered into a strategic agreement for
the development of Scandinavian languages for use in major speech and
language applications. When development of these languages are complete,
L&H anticipates that it will have access up to 36 languages capable of
supporting a wide variety of applications such as telephony, dictation,
translation, Internet and education.
"Industry analysts predict that the market for speech and language
applications worldwide will grow to a multi-billion market by 2001.
Based on these projections, speech and language technology will be
applications for the school, home, automobile telephone, dictation and
global mass market," said Gaston Bastiaens, president and CEO of L&H.
"L&H is committed to meeting that demand by offering the industry's
widest variety of languages in support of the full range of speech
applications."
According to L&H, speech and language solutions integrating its
additional languages are expected to initially become available in 2000.
The majority of the applications and languages are expected to be
available before the end of 2001.
"We at Microsoft applaud Lernout & Hauspie's initiatives in language
development for speech and language applications. Clearly the market
need exists for multilingual offerings. In fact, at Microsoft we are
introducing Microsoft(R) Office products in more than 30 languages,"
said John Duncan, Microsoft Office Product Manager.
"The initiative to develop these additional languages at this stage
is a clear statement from L&H that it intends to remain in the forefront
as a market and technology leader in speech and languages," said Jo
Lernout co-chairman and co-founder of Lernout & Hauspie. "Our initiative
to have as many as 36 languages for various speech and language
applications in the coming years should allow L&H to benefit from major
trends in the Internet, telephony and computing."
In order to develop additional languages within certain time and
financial constraints, L&H has licensed its language development tools
to strategic partners who will undertake the localization and
development of these language areas. L&H will have certain marketing
rights as well as the right to receive royalties from sales of any
technology developed under these arrangements.
About L&H
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) is a global leader in
advanced speech and language solutions for 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 cultural barriers.
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 Web site at www.lhs.com.
This news release contains forward-looking statements. Such
forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements
related to the anticipated development of new languages and the
anticipated growth of the speech technology market. Readers are
cautioned that such forward-looking statements are subject to material
and adverse change and involve risks and uncertainties, both known and
unknown, including, without limitation, risks associated with reliance
on third parties, rapid technological change, product development and
introduction and competition. There can be no assurance that any
languages will be developed on a timely basis, if at all, or that any
languages, once developed, will be commercially successful. The
statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this release.
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.
All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of
L&H or their respective owners.
--30--sb/bos*
CONTACT: Lernout & Hauspie
L&H Contact Info:
Worldwide PR/IR:
Ellen Spooren, (781) 203-5344
espooren@lhs.com
or
Corporate Comm. US:
Audrey Pobre, (781) 203-5341
apobre@lhs.com
or
Media Contact Europe:
Nick Spencer, (44) 1344-873-445
nspencer@lhs.com
or
Lommaert & Blondeel Consultants
Investor Contact Europe:
Annemieke Blondeel, (44) 1322-520-180
a.blondeel@dial.pipex.com
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