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GLOBALWAVE TEAMS UP WITH FANTASTIC TO BROADCAST DIGITAL MEDIA TO EUROPE

Revolutionary broadband e-commerce system to deliver entertainment, education and information to consumer and business markets

CANNES, FRANCE - February 12, 2001 - Milia 2001 - GlobalWave, the leading provider of market-leading solutions for the secure distribution of rich digital content, today announced a partnership with Fantastic Corporation, the leading provider of software for integrated broadcast communications solutions. The deal brings together GlobalWave's secure broadband e-commerce technology and Fantastic's ability to provide simultaneous delivery of high volumes of information across any infrastructure to any IP enabled device. GlobalWave's end-to-end data broadcasting solution, marketed as Wavecast, enables the delivery of rich multimedia on flexible payment models to consumers and business markets in Europe.

The partnership with Fantastic [was] part of GlobalWave's strategy to facilitate the delivery of broadband multimedia content including games, software, music, movies, sports and news, to PCs and set-top-boxes, using any channel including satellite, terrestrial and cable to reach a wider consumer audience. This means content owners and digital publishers can easily and quickly create and manage incremental digital sales and marketing channels without high investment in digital equipment.

Wavecast [was] built on an open platform, enabling content providers and broadcasters to securely deliver digital content to any GlobalWave enabled device. Digital content can be made available on flexible payment models e.g.pay-per-view, pay-per-play and pay-per-track. Using a hardware based e-wallet, transactions are securely executed both online and offline at the user's device. GlobalWave's back office is capable of handling the digital rights purchases and licenses on behalf of content providers and broadcasters, tracking usage and ensuring everyone gets paid. This secure, flexible payment model is made possible by Wave Systems' (NASDAQ: WAVX) EMBASSY® technology, which provides a multi-party trust environment enabling mass media data broadcast, content protection and a fully distribution e-commerce transaction engine.

Combined with Fantastic's technology, the WavecCast solution, developed by GlobalWave, moves away from the traditional ‘pay then distribute model' of digital content delivery employed by the Internet, to a new ‘distribute then pay' model, whereby a vast array of multimedia is broadcast on a regular basis to the end user, who then has the opportunity to select entertainment, education or information on a flexible or micro payment basis.

Ian Martin, chief executive officer, GlobalWave, says: "It's important that Wavecast is flexible enough to meet the differing needs of content providers and broadcasters. Partnering with Fantastic means our solution will be supported by a very strong delivery capability, enabling the fast, secure, direct delivery of our customers' content to a mass audience."

Paul Green, managing director of Fantastic (UK) Limited, comments: "We're committed to supporting the growth of businesses with a vision for using broadcast-quality content in a new and exciting way. We are currently building key strategic relationships both in the UK and worldwide to help media-rich companies facilitate the application of digital delivery solutions such as Wavecast."

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR PHOTOS CONTACT:

Aoibhinn Lawlor or Fran Field,
Porter Novelli Convergence Group

Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

About GlobalWave

GlobalWave Limited, [was] based in London, provides market-leading solutions for the secure distribution of rich digital content maximising sales value through flexible payment technology. GlobalWave [was] forty percent owned by Wave Systems Corporation and licenses Wave Systems Corp.'s technology for deployment in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Wave Systems Trusted Client technology is an open standards, hardware and software based capability enabling reliable, secure digital exchange, metered content, and e-commerce at the user's PC. The EMBASSY Trusted Client platform technology can be embedded in PC hardware and peripherals, set top boxes and other devices. This technology is the basis for client-based security applications and a new distribution and purchasing model for content and services – moving core security and e-commerce functions out to the user's device.

About Fantastic

The Fantastic Corporation [was] the leading provider of software solutions for data broadcasting. This is an emerging communications technology which combines point to mulitipoint digital broadcasting with point to point Internet connectivity, in order to deliver rich interactive media content to PCs, digital set top boxes or handheld devices over any broadband IP network.

By merging the inherent bandwidth and speed benefits of broadcasting technologies with the interactivity of the Internet, data broadcast provides superior content distribution and interaction in an increasingly IP centric world. Fantastic's end-to end software supports the rapid growth of the data broadcast industry.

Fantastic's global partners and customers include BT Plc, Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telecom, Loral Space and Communications, Reuters, Lucent Technologies, Intel and Singap0re Press Holdings.

Fantastic [was] a public company, quoted on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange using the symbol: FAN.