INTC investment in Lernout & Hauspie
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
dljdirect.com
AFTER THE BELL-Lernout & Hauspie moves up
NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) - Shares in Lernout & Hauspie
Speech Products NV LHSP.O rose slightly Monday in after-hours
trading on Instinet after the company reported that Intel Corp.
agreed to invest $30 million in the speech company.
After closing on the Nasdaq exchange at 37-7/8, Lernout &
Hauspie was trading at 40-1/2 on Instinet.
The Burlington, Mass.-based company makes advanced speech
and langrage products for computers, autos, telecommunications
the Internet and other consumer goods.
According to the New York Stock Exchange, session one
volume was 1,409,000 compared with 1,961,000 on Thursday. There
was no activity in session two, compared with 2,591,117 on
Thursday.
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service
==================
dljdirect.com
Business Wire
LERNOUT & HAUSPIE ANNOUNCES LETTER OF INTENT
FOR INTEL TO INVEST $30 MILLION
BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY EDITORS
IEPER, Belgium & BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5,
1999--Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (NASDAQ:LHSP.O)(EASDAQ:LHSP)
(L&H)(TM) today announced that Intel Corporation has signed a binding
letter of intent to invest $30 million in L&H. The proposed
investment, which would be made through a subsidiary, is subject to
Intel's satisfactory completion of due diligence, completion and
execution of documentation acceptable to both parties and regulatory
approval. According to the terms of the letter, Intel would initially
acquire non-voting securities convertible into common stock of L&H.
Intel and L&H are also discussing possible activities that employ
L&H's expertise in Natural Language Understanding (NLU), intelligent
content management (ICM) information mining of unstructured data,
and machine translation, among other areas.
"L&H will continue to develop its portfolio of voice, language
and information technologies, including NLU, ICM and other data
structuring and querying methods." said Gaston Bastiaens, president
and CEO of L&H. "Solutions using our technologies for the Internet and
e-commerce are a logical place for us to expand our market segment
position."
"Voice and language technologies will help enable a new level of
natural interaction with data and computers," said Ron Whittier,
senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Content Group.
"We are excited about new benefits that technologies such as those
from L&H -- combined with high performance Intel architecture-based
computers -- can bring to end users."
"L&H is broadening the areas in which it applies its core
strengths and expertise in linguistic technology to enable structured
access to formerly unstructured data," said Jo Lernout, co-founder of
L&H. "I believe that running our Natural Language Technology on faster
microprocessors will simplify querying and data mining for the
Internet and e-commerce market segments."
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 Press Release contains forward-looking information,
including statements regarding L&H's expectations and intentions
concerning investments, the development and commercialization
activities of L&H, certain of its customers and the performance of
their respective products and products under development. 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
include known and unknown risks, including without limitation, the
uncertainty of new product development, including the risk that newly
introduced products may contain undetected errors or defects or
otherwise not perform as anticipated, the early stage of development
of the speech and language technology markets, uncertainty of market
growth, rapid technological change and intense competition, as well as
other risks set forth in L&H's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. 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.
--30--gk/bos*
CONTACT: Worldwide PR/IR:
Lernout & Hauspie
Ellen Spooren, (781) 203-5344
espooren@lhsl.com
or
Corporate Comm. US:
Lernout & Hauspie
Audrey Pobre, (781) 203-5341
apobre@lhsl.com
or
Media Contact Europe:
Lernout & Hauspie
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
Copyright 1999, Business Wire
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
|
