I thought this announcement might interest some of you.
David Andrews
>Posted-Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 20:17:04 -0500 (CDT)
>From: David Bradburn <david@kurzweiledu.com>
>To: "'Scan Talk List'" <scantalk@linkline.com>
>Subject: Great news from Kurzweil Educational Systems
>Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 20:58:06 -0400
>Importance: high
>Organization: Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc.
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>Good evening:
>
>The following announcement was posted on the Kurzweil 1000 and Kurzweil
>3000 List Serves this evening.
>
>Sincerely,
>David Bradburn
>Marketing Manager
>Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc.
>
>We are proud to announce the planned acquisition of Kurzweil Educational
>Systems, Inc. (KESI) by Lernout and Hauspie (L&H), a worldwide market
>leader in speech and linguistic technologies, products and services.
>
>This acquisition presents a fantastic opportunity for all of us, including
>our valued customers - that's you!
>
>You will read in the L&H Press Release following my signature, that as a
>result of this acquisition, L&H will provide its market leading
>text-to-speech (TTS) technology for integration into KESI's offerings and
>it will leverage its broad channel experience and strong international
>presence to expand the company's product reach into the broader market.
>This is good news for the future of KESI and its products.
>
>Briefly, everyone of us at KESI is thrilled with this news and all of us
>will be staying with the new company, including Ray Kurzweil who will
>continue to play a major role in the development of our industry-leading
>products and services.
>
>If you have any questions, please feel free to write them to this list
>which I monitor closely, or contact me privately at david@kurzweiledu.com.
> I can also be contacted by telephone at 1-800-894-5374, x223, or
>781-893-8200, x223 if calling internationally.
>
>Thanks for your attention to this message.
>
>David Bradburn
>Marketing Manager
>Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc.
>david@kurzweiledu.com
>
>
>L&H TO ACQUIRE KURZWEIL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS AND ENTERS EDUCATIONAL MARKET
>WITH SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS FOR LITERACY WORLDWIDE
>
>L&H Also Reaches Breakthrough in Development of Human Voice Text-to-Speech
>
>BURLINGTON, MASS. & IEPER, BELGIUM ¾ September 1, 1998 -Lernout & Hauspie
>(NASDAQ: LHSPF, EASDAQ: LHSP-ED) (L&H), a worldwide market leader in speech
>and linguistic technologies, products and services, announced today that it
>has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Kurzweil Educational Systems
>(KESI), a leading developer and provider of educational software and
>systems for reading assistance. As a result of the acquisition, L&H will
>provide its market-leading text-to-speech (TTS) technology for integration
>into KESI's offerings and it will leverage its broad channel experience and
>strong International presence to expand the company's product reach into
>the broader market. This move into the education market will complement
>L&H's strengths in other vertical markets, such as legal and medical
>dictation.
>L&H has reached a definitive agreement to acquire KESI for approximately
>$20 million which may be paid in L&H common stock or cash at the election
>of L&H. The company expects the acquisition after initial write-offs of in
>process R&D to be accretive to earnings in 1999.
>KESI's award-winning software systems help people with learning
>disabilities or vision-impairments learn to read by employing a combination
>of speech and linguistic tools to provide a synchronized visual and
>auditory presentation of reading material. The systems are currently
>deployed in approximately 1,500 schools and educational systems. Future
>products are expected to target students worldwide who are learning to
>read. The products employ patent-pending technologies as well as
>text-to-speech, image processing and image text editing technologies. L&H
>intends to leverage many of these technologies, and KESI's experienced
>linguists and engineers, to further enhance its content management and core
>product offerings.
>"The superiority of L&H's Text-to-Speech technology in its many languages
>blended with KESI's proven innovative solutions enables us to bring a
>complete solution for the International education market," said Gaston
>Bastiaens, president and CEO of L&H. "KESI's outstanding technology, our
>strong marketing skills and our forthcoming next generation TTS will help
>us bring L&H closer to its goal of providing speech-enabled products for
>the widest variety of users in the worldwide market."
>- More -
>L&H To Acquire KESI Page 2
>L&H is widely recognized for its market leading TTS technology which is
>offered in more than sixteen languages and supports the most comprehensive
>set of platforms and engines on the market today. The company also plans to
>introduce additional languages for TTS in the near future. In addition, L&H
>R&D laboratories reached a breakthrough in the field of speech synthesis,
>which will bring the Text-to-Speech technology to an unmatched human voice
>quality.
>According to the company, these enhancements should make applications such
>as KESI's software appealing to a much broader range of users. Ultimately,
>say company officials, these enhancements will help enable speech to become
>the man-machine interface of choice for the mass market.
>According to L&H, the timing is ripe to enter the mass market with reading
>software. "Computer technology is affordable, friendly and in wide use at
>home and in schools," said Jo Lernout chairman and co-founder of L&H.
>"Concurrently, reading skills, both for the general and special education
>sectors, are being given top priority and attention in learning
>institutions throughout the U.S. and Europe."
>"We're thrilled by the opportunities that this merger provides," said Ray
>Kurzweil, KESI Chairman and CEO. "The KESI reading and image processing
>technologies, together with L&H's powerful technologies, multi-lingual and
>market expertise, provide a formidable combination that should greatly
>accelerate our efforts to provide effective solutions for the reading
>problems of approximately 5million children in K-12 with learning
>disabilities."
>Following the merger, KESI will become part of L&H's core division,
>reporting to Jerry Calabrese, president, L&H's Core Technology Division.
>KESI will bring 12 engineers and developers into its core division and
>anticipates there will be little redundancy between the two companies. Ray
>Kurzweil, who currently serves as chairman and CEO of KESI and as a chief
>technologist for L&H's Dictation Division, will expand his technology
>advisor role to other divisions within L&H and will report directly to
>Gaston Bastiaens, L&H's president and CEO.
>
>About KESI
>Kurzweil Education Systems, Inc. (KESI) designs, develops and markets
>PC-based advanced education software systems that help learning-disabled
>and vision impaired persons overcome reading difficulties and read the full
>range of printed and electronic information, including books, magazines and
>World Wide Web content. It has developed unique and function rich print to
>speech software by fully integrating a portfolio of KESI patent pending,
>proprietary technologies. The company's flagship product, the Kurzweil
>3000 scans, recognizes, enhances and displays printed documents or live Web
>pages, then reads the document aloud while highlighting the images of print
>in a fully synchronized manner by word, phrase or sentence. The product
>also offers a variety of linguistic and educational features. KESI was
>recently awarded the $150,000 SAP/Stevie Wonder Vision Award for Product of
>theYear.
>
>- More-
>
>L&H To Acquire KESI Page 3
>
>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 on the World Wide Web at www.lhs.com.
>This Press Release contains forward-looking information, including but not
>limited to statements involving the financial and other contributions
>expected from the acquisition of the Kurzweil Educational Systems. There
>can be no assurance that actual results will not be materially different
>than those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that
>could cause actual results to materially differ from those anticipated in
>these forward looking statements include known and unknown risks, including
>those set forth below. Acquisitions involve numerous risks, including
>difficulties in the assimilation of and integration of operations,
>technologies and products of the acquired business, the potential loss of
>customers and key employees of the acquired company. In addition, the
>technologies and businesses being acquired by L&H are subject to the
>significant risks and uncertainties generally applicable to L&H's business,
>including uncertainty of new product development and integration of both
>companies' technologies, early stage of development of the speech and
>educational technology market, 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,
>including the L&H's Annual Report on Form 20-F. Moreover, consummation of
>the acquisitions are subject to certain conditions, including, in the case
>of Kurzweil Educational Systems, the approval of the Kurzweil Educational
>Systems stockholders. As a result, there can be no assurance that any of
>these expected acquisitions will be consummated on the terms described
>herein, if at all. 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
>
>
>
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