ABBYY Secures New Strategic Relationships with Compaq and Lexmark

Leading Hardware Manufacturers Include ABBYY FineReader OCR Software with New Scanners and Multi-function Devices

Moscow, August 01, 2001 - ABBYY, a world leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies, today announced two worldwide bundling agreements with leading hardware manufacturers, Compaq and Lexmark. Under the new agreements, Compaq is shipping the new Compaq S200 scanner with ABBYY FineReader 4.0 Sprint and a trial version of ABBYY FineReader 5.0 Pro. In addition, Lexmark is bundling ABBYY FineReader 4.0 Sprint with its X series multi-functional devices designed to scan, print, copy and fax.

ôThese new partnerships add to our momentum in the U.S. û Compaq and Lexmark will introduce the FineReader brand to millions of new scanner owners,ö said Dean Tang, president and CEO of ABBYY USA. ôNine of the top scanner manufacturers now bundle our software, widening FineReaderÆs market presence as the OCR-of-choice.ö

ôLexmark and Compaq are popular brands in Europe. According to some experts ABBYY has about 20-25% of European professional OCR market. This contract gives a new push our presence not just in Europe, but worldwideö, said Jupp Stoepetie, CEO of ABBYY Europe. 

ABBYY FineReader

ABBYY FineReader 4.0 Sprint offers robust OCR capabilities and ease-of-use features that make it quick and easy to convert paper-based documents and scanned images into editable electronic files. FineReader Sprint is based on the award-winning ABBYY FineReader Engine, widely acclaimed for its superior recognition accuracy. The FineReader line of retail products has received more than 45 awards in comparative OCR tests and evaluations by leading publications around the world. 

Customers who register the free bundled software can upgrade to FineReader 5.0 Pro for $89.99 by contacting the nearest ABBYY office (http://www.abbyy.com/contacts/index.htm). The full version provides the highest level of character accuracy and format retention û even when converting complex pages and poor quality documents. Not only is FineReader 5.0 Pro superior to other solutions, but also itÆs significantly less expensive than the OCR market-share leader. In the U.S., FineReader 5.0 has recently received the ZDNet Best Buy award in a comparison with ScanSoftÆs OmniPage Pro 11.

Compaq S Series Scanner

The new Compaq S200 scanner is the first Compaq scanner to include FineReader Sprint. It is designed for students, home offices and small businesses with demanding imaging needs û from photos and school projects to business presentations with sharp text and brilliant color. 

Lexmark X Series of All-In-One Print Centers

Lexmark now includes ABBYY FineReader Sprint in two products, the Lexmark X83 and X73 All-In-One Print Centers. These digital imaging centers combine LexmarkÆs inkjet print technology with scan and copy capabilities, enabling creativity and enhanced functionality for home and small office/home office (SOHO) users. 

About ABBYY Group

Companies of ABBYY Group develop, promote and sell worldwide software for optical character recognition (OCR), intelligent character recognition (ICR), linguistics, semantics and electronic lexicography. ABBYY Group consists of 5 offices: ABBYY Software House (Moscow, headquarters), ABBYY USA (Freemont, CA), ABBYY Europe (Munich, Germany), ABBYY Europe UK office (Bishops Stortford, UK), ABBYY Ukraine. Leading products from ABBYY include the FineReader line of OCR/ICR/OMR software as well as FineReader development tools that allows developers to integrate OCR into their solutions. Among the companies that license ABBYY OCR/ICR technologies are Siemens Nixdorf, Samsung Electronics, C-Technologies, Sumitomo Electric Systems, L&H/Kurzweil, Arkenstone, Banctec (Japan), Visionshape, Acer, Microtek, OTG Software, Grantsmart, Mustek, Umax, NewSoft, Primax and Jet Fax. See more information about ABBYY at our Web site www.abbyy.com 

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ABBYY and FineReader names and logos are registered trademarks of ABBYY Software House. Compaq and the Compaq logo are registered trademarks of Compaq Computer Corporation. Lexmark and Lexmark with diamond design are trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc. and are registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.