SPATIALIZER LICENSES COMPIZER AUDIO ENHANCEMENT FOR CONSUMER
ELECTRONICS & PC CHIPSETS FIRST SHIPMENTS OF SPATIALIZER N-2-2 VIRTUAL
Surround Enabled DVD Decoder IC's To Begin in January 2000
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., and TAIPEI, Taiwan, Jan 19, 2000
/PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc. (OTC
Bulletin Board: SPAZ) and Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALi) jointly
announced today that ALi has licensed Spatializer's complete range of
advanced audio enhancement technologies for inclusion across ALi's
range of consumer electronic & PC components. ALi will begin shipping
Spatializer(R) N-2-2TM Virtual Surround enabled DVD Decoder ICs in
January, 2000 and will incorporate Spatializer 3D-Stereo (TM), along
with Spatializer Vi.B.E (TM), Spatializer enCOMPASS (TM), and
Spatializer StreamFX (TM) into the consumer electronic & PC markets.
"This announcement marks the latest in a series of significant big-name
license deals for Spatializer," said Pete Birch, Senior Vice President
with Spatializer Audio Labs. "ALi is an exceptional company with a
proven track record for delivering quality products at the right price.
We are very pleased to welcome them to our extensive family of
Spatializer licensees. We have inked this license deal on the basis of
a co-operative arrangement which offers value for both parties."
ALi, a preferred supplier to, and until recently part of the Acer
Group, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of integrated
circuits for the PC and embedded PC markets. ALi has created innovative
leading products including the first industry standard Super I/O
controller, the first RISC based PC system chip set, the first 100MHz
Socket 7 chipset and the first complete DVD solution. Multiple
best-product awards have been awarded to the company, along with
significant patents and software copyright registrations. Throughout
its years of dedication to the PC industry, ALi has developed one of
the industry's richest PC-related Intellectual Property (IP)
collections covering system, peripheral and multimedia devices.
"We are happy to make this announcement," said Chin Wu, President of
ALi. "Having evaluated all the competing technologies, we decided that
Spatializer was the provider who could offer us the best audio
enhancement solutions to help us increase our product sales into the
consumer electronics market. Spatializer N-2-2 is a must-have for DVD's
players, and we believe that Spatializer's other technologies can add
significant value to our complete range of PC and Multimedia products.
We see this announcement as the beginning of a long and successful
partnership."
Henry R. Mandell, Interim CEO for Spatializer added, "This is a very
meaningful design win for our Company. ALi is a rapidly growing company
with worldwide renown for technological innovation. Industry analysts
have stated that by offering an integrated controller and
de-compression solution, ALi will possess a strong competitive
advantage in the DVD market. We believe that ALi's integrated solution
will be a blockbuster product. This is a major deal for us in two
respects. First, it broadens our presence in the DSP market and firmly
positions us, along with our other world class DSP licensees, to offer
our already widely adopted virtual surround sound technology to the
broadest possible spectrum of OEMs in the burgeoning DVD market.
Second, ALi is a world leader in the PC Core-Logic chipset market, with
annual volume of several million units. As such, we are well positioned
to further penetrate the laptop market in a significant way for our
suite of enhanced audio technologies. We expect to be co-operating very
closely with ALi to ensure that they are able to deliver the finest
audio solutions to their customers. We are very honored to have a
partner of this quality."
Mr. Birch concluded, "We are very satisfied at the continued design win
momentum for our technologies. In particular, this provides substantial
weight to our claim that Spatializer N-2-2 is positioned as the
de-facto standard for virtual surround sound enhancement for DVD
players, and the technology that all others are judged by. We will be
working very hard to ensure that we provide ALi and our existing
Licensees with the highest level of support for our current and future
technologies."
ALi (Acer Laboratories Inc.), founded in 1987, is headquartered in
Taipei, Taiwan, with its North American/European operations out of its
office in San Jose, California. Since its establishment, ALi has
provided highly integrated, cost-effective and innovative IC products
to support personal computer system and subsystem manufacturers. ALi is
not only one of the world's oldest and largest system core logic
manufacturers but is also a world-class provider of other PC peripheral
products, such as graphics and multimedia chips, Super I/O controllers
and CD-ROM controllers. ALi is capable of developing a wide range of
products to support a variety of CPUs, including the X86 families up
through 64-bit CPUs, such as the Pentium Pro, Pentium, M1, M2, K5, K6,
as well as the industry standard buses. The company employs 450 people
and expects revenues of $130 million in 1999.
ALi stock is traded on the Taiwan OTC. The company is headquartered in
Taipei, Taiwan, and has marketing, engineering and R&D facilities in
San Jose, Calif. Further information may be obtained from ALi's
web-site (www.ali.com.tw or www.acerlabs.com) or by contacting the
company directly.
Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc. is a leading developer, licensor
and marketer of next-generation technologies for the consumer
electronics, computing and entertainment industries. The company's
advanced audio technology is incorporated into consumer electronics
audio, video and DVD products from global brand leaders including
Toshiba, JVC, Panasonic, Hitachi, Samsung, Acer, Sharp, Sanyo,
Goldstar, Emerson, Zenith and Proton, in PC multimedia systems and
peripherals from Apple, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Fujitsu,
Seiko-Epson, NEC, Micron and Labtec, in silicon from Matsushita, ESS,
Zoran, Motorola, C-Cube, OnChip Systems, and Acer Laboratories Inc, and
in software compatible with MP3 players such as WinAmp and XingMP3.
Spatializer stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol
"SPAZ." The company is headquartered in Woodland Hills, Calif. and has
marketing, engineering and R&D facilities in Santa Clara, Calif. and
Tokyo. Further information may be obtained from Spatializer's SEC
filings, web-site (www.spatializer.com) or by contacting the company
directly.
Safe Harbor Act Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: Certain information in this news release, including
the comments by Messrs. Birch and Mandell in paragraphs two, five and
six are forward looking statements that are based on management's
belief, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently
available to management.
While the Company believes that its expectations are based upon
reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurances that the Company's
financial goals will be realized. Numerous uncertainties and risk
factors may affect the Company's actual results and may cause results
to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements
made by or on behalf of the Company. These uncertainties and risk
factors include, but are not limited to dependence on new technology
and intellectual property, dependence on the PC and consumer
electronics industries, dependence on product shipments of third-party
licensees, competition and pricing pressures, the timing and realizable
value of the MDT technology, and other risks detailed from time to time
in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Notices: Desper Products, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc. Spatializer(R) is a registered
trademark and N-2-2(TM), enCOMPASS(TM), Vi.B.E(TM) and StreamFX(TM) are
trademarks of Desper Products, Inc.
SOURCE Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc.
(C) 2000 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
www.prnewswire.com
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CONTACT: Henry R. Mandell, Interim Chief Executive Officer of
Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc., 818-227-3370, henrym@spatializer.com; or
Nancy Hartsoch, Vice President of Acer Laboratories, Inc, 408-544-3100, ext,
3105, nancy_hartsoch@acer.com
