Vincent Fontaine, Executive Committee Chairman, Babel Technologies

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What precipitated this merger? Why is it occurring right now?

Vincent Fontaine The merge was not precipitated. We have been preparing the merge for over a year in terms of organization and financial aspects. We believe there is a need on the market for a strong, global player with European presence. Both companies were familiar with each other, had similar structures, little commercial overlap, the same ambitions and technologies that proved to be easy to combine. Moreover, given that both companies were financed by common investors, the merge came naturally.

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What benefits will Babel and Elan customers see due to this merger?

PR Customers will rapidly benefit from a wider product portfolio and larger language coverage. Our size and geographical locations will reinforce our strength to provide support and tailored solutions for our customers.

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What does this combination do for the speech industry?

VF This combination creates a new major player in the speech industry. Development of speech technologies and new languages requires substantial investments. The field of applications is huge and each market segment asks for specific adaptations. By joining forces, we expect to speed-up the innovation in speech-driven interfaces.

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How do you position this new entity for competition from other European providers of text-to-speech such as Loquendo?

VF The group will be leading the European speech market with a broad product portfolio and unequalled language coverage. This allows to address all market demands, from small mobile platforms to large telecom severs.

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How will this affect each company's product line, specifically BrightSpeech, Sayso and Tempo, all text-to-speech applications?

VF In a first integration step, we will build a compatibility layer to enable Elan Speech customers to include Babel voices and vice-versa. In a second step, we will integrate the technologies to improve the overall performance of the products. We will guarantee backward compatibility of each product to ensure transparent upgrades to a unified product range.

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Will there be any reduction in staff due to the merger?

VF No plans today. Our goal for 2004 is to generate a positive EBITDA, meaning team size adjustments will be linked to financial results.

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What trends can we expect to see with speech in the near term and long term?

VF On the one hand, we can expect further consolidation of the speech market in the coming years. On the other hand, we expect to observe increasing deployments in the telecommunications, mobile and automotive sectors. Not a big boom but a healthy, sustained growth.

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How will your partners be affected by this integration?

VF Our partners can now rely on a stronger speech provider offering increased support capabilities, sales channels and faster time-to-market deployments.

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When should we expect to see the new management structure and plans? Please discuss the management changes that have been announced and what they mean?

VF The company will be managed by an Executive Committee composed by a team of three: Antoine Kauffeisen, Lars-Erik Larsson and myself. I will chair the executive committee and manage the site in Belgium. Antoine Kauffeisen will act as vice-president of marketing and manage the site of Toulouse. Lars-Erik Larsson will act as vice-president of sales and manage the site of Stockholm.