Talk’s not cheap, it’s bankrupt
I was saddened to see that a leader in the speech-recognition field, Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. Earlier last month, its founders, CEO, and CFO all resigned their posts, and the company is being investigated for irregular accounting practices both in the U.S. and in Belgium, where it was founded.
L&H had great technology and brilliant people working on developing it. It had a diversified business plan, offering not only speech-recognition software but also translation services, transcription products, speech-enabled devices, and other related technologies.
I feel sorry for investors who bought in when L&H’s story seemed so promising. The stock, which traded as high as $72.50 in March, was at about $6.22 when trading was halted Nov. 9 on Nasdaq, and around $3.53 when it was stopped on Easdaq, the Nasdaq’s European equivalent. The company’s market capitalization went from more than $10 billion in May to less than $1 billion last week, and it owes half a billion in debt.
Part of that debt is from two high-profile acquisitions the company made this year: Dictaphone Corp., a leader in speech-to-text systems, and Dragon Systems Inc., the other top speech-recognition player. The sellers of those firms have seen the value of their proceeds, which were made partly in stock, disappear like the morning frost when the sun comes up. Dictaphone’s previous owners are already in court trying to get their assets back, but with little prospect of success.
Analysts are not optimistic about the chances for L&H’s the survival. If it dies, where does that leave the speech-recognition marketplace?
For now, in the hands of IBM and Philips Speech Processing, and that’s too bad for you and me. The last time I tested products from those companies (admittedly, more than a year ago) both were well behind L&H and Dragon in accuracy and usability.
I recommend you get your hands on a copy of L&H’s Voice Xpress 5.0 and treasure it. Get the Professional edition, if you can afford it. If you like the idea of making voice notes that you can later get your software to transcribe, get the Mobile Professional product, which comes with a nifty featherweight solid-state voice recorder.
And keep your fingers crossed for a miraculous turnaround.
Articles | Administrator | 
Friday, December 15, 2000 12:00 pm
Subscribe