IEPER, Belgium & BURLINGTON, Mass., Jul 30, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Combined with previous agreements, new republisher, distribution and VAR contracts with leading companies ensure virtual worldwide availability of L&H's packaged software products and corporate software solutions
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. (OTC: LHSPQ) ('L&H' or 'the Company'), a world leader in speech and language technology, products and services, today announced that its Speech and Language Technologies Division (SLT) has signed several new agreements with distributors and resellers serving Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Latin America and the U.K. Combined with previously announced distribution and reseller agreements for the U.S., Canada, Continental Europe and Asia, these new agreements ensure virtual worldwide availability of L&H's packaged software products and software solutions for the corporate, VAR and vertical markets.
Retail Market
L&H has entered a republisher agreement for Australia with Sydney-based Marketing Results PTY Limited, a wholesale distributor specializing in innovative 'first-to-market' software, hardware and networking products for the retail and reseller marketplaces. With respect to New Zealand, L&H has signed a similar agreement with Auckland-based Roadshow Entertainment Ltd., one of this country's pre-eminent distributors of interactive software. Under the terms of these agreements, both republishers will market, manufacture, package, distribute and support English-language versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking(R) and other L&H products, such as L&H(TM) PowerTranslator(R) Pro, L&H(TM) SimplyTranslating(TM), Easy Language(TM) 61 and L&H(TM) Talking Max(TM).
For the Latin America region, L&H has signed a republisher agreement with Mexico-based Telematica y Sistemas Avanzados S.A. de C.V. (Telsa), a business development company serving IT and software companies as well as e-commerce publishers. Under the terms of this agreement, Telsa has the right to manufacture, package, market, distribute and support Spanish-language versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking(R), L&H Voice Xpress(TM), L&H(TM) PowerTranslator(R) Pro, L&H(TM) SimplyTranslating(TM), L&H(TM) Talking Max(TM), L&H VoiceCommands(TM) and L&H WebTranslator(TM) for retail markets in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.
The combination of these new distributor and reseller agreements with existing ones makes L&H's market-leading retail software available in virtually every major market worldwide, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa (available through MediaGold), the United States and Canada (available through The Learning Company), South East Asia and India (available through HCL Infosystems Ltd.), Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico, Central America and the northern region of South America.
VAR, Corporate and Vertical Markets
As part of its ongoing efforts to market and sell the Dragon NaturallySpeaking(R) vertical family of products to the corporate, VAR and vertical markets throughout the world, L&H has signed distribution agreements with Chessington-based Northamber PLC, the largest independent trade-only distributor of computer hardware and peripherals in the U.K., and with Voice Perfect Systems PTY Ltd., headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.
Northamber PLC will produce, distribute and market the English-language versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking(R) Professional in the U.K. market. Voice Perfect Systems PTY Ltd. has similar rights for the corporate, VAR and vertical markets of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands region. These new distribution contracts strengthen L&H's existing base of approximately 20 Value Added Resellers in the Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland.
Peter Hauser, vice president and general manager L&H International and Automotive said: "We are pleased to have secured such strong distribution for L&H's products in important retail, corporate, VAR and vertical markets like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Latin America and the U.K. With these recent agreements, we have ensured our products' availability in virtually every market around the world." Mr. Hauser added: "These agreements underscore our strategy to develop powerful distribution partnerships with specialized partners in key markets abroad, whereby we combine our partners' extensive local market knowledge and experience with L&H's strong and innovative speech and language technologies and solutions."
