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Exhibit 99.1
Contact: CIC
Chantal Eshghipour
Phone: 650-802-7740
Email: [email protected]
CIC CLOSES ASSET ACQUISITION OF PENOP LTD.
REDWOOD SHORES, CA, OCTOBER 10, 2000 - (Nasdaq: CICI) Communication Intelligence
Corporation ("CIC"), the leading supplier of natural input and electronic
signature solutions, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of
certain assets, without assuming any of the liabilities, of PenOp Ltd., a global
leader of e-signature solutions, including PenOp's intellectual property and
certain global strategic alliance partnership agreements, in exchange for 4.7
million shares of common stock.
Hot on the heels of legislation legalizing electronic signatures in the US, UK
and Canada, and pending legislation in several other major countries around the
world, the PenOp acquisition consolidates CIC's strength in technology and
market presence. The acquisition expands CIC's global customer base and
distribution channel while providing the broadest array of e-signature and
natural input solutions to offer this expanding global market.
As business and government prepare to transact and execute documents online with
digital signatures, CIC with the acquisition of PenOp's intellectual property
has expanded its breath of technologies for electronic approval in the digital
marketplace. The acquisition supports and extends CIC's diverse family of
electronic signature products that make it easy and affordable for any size
organization to sign electronically, regardless of input device.
"With global e-signature laws now in place, organizations will accelerate the
move toward efficient and legally binding paperless transactions in the B2B and
G2B markets," according to Guido DiGregorio, President and CEO of CIC. "While
the handwritten signature remains the most recognized, legally effective, and
secure way to authorize a document today, with the acquisition of PenOp and its
patents, CIC has expanded its product base and now offers signature solutions
utilizing a variety of informetric and biometric devices. CIC's natural pen
input solutions on PDA's and smartphones provides a base for CIC to dominate the
global pen/signature market by enabling organizations to standardize on a single
solution to execute legally binding e-signatures."
ABOUT CIC
Communication Intelligence Corporation (CIC) is the leading supplier of natural
input and electronic signature solutions for wireless Internet and e-Commerce
applications. The Company's core software technologies include multilingual
handwriting recognition systems, dynamic signature verification, natural
messaging, and operating system extensions that enable pen input. CIC's products
are designed to increase the ease of use, functionality, and security of
wireless electronic devices ranging from handheld companions to cellular phones.
Key licensees of the Company's technologies include Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hitachi,
Mitsubishi, National Semiconductor
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and Symbian. CIC is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California and has a joint
venture, CICC, in Nanjing, China. For more information, please visit our website
at WWW.CIC.COM.
ABOUT PENOP
PenOp is a global leader in providing legally binding, technology-neutral
electronic signature technology for eBusiness. PenOp's patented, online signing
process gathers the Digital Evidence(TM) transcript required to replacE pen and
paper signatures. A pioneer in handwritten digital signatures, PenOp serves
customers in 32 countries with Ready to Sign(TM) solutions built into
e-commerce, forms management and workflow applications by major commercial and
government organizations. PenOp markets its products with its strategic alliance
partners including: Adobe Systems, Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Microsoft
Corporation, Palm Computing, Entrust Corporation, Xcert International, Valicert,
Documentum Inc., FileNET Corporation, JetForm Corporation, OpenText, Optika,
Siebel Systems Inc., Staffware, Wacom Technology Corporation and WinTime
Electronics Corp.
PenOp solutions are available for Palm Computing(TM) and Microsoft(R) Windows
CE, NT, 95, 98 and 2000 platforms. TO date hundreds of businesses and government
agencies have achieved paperless processes using PenOp products to seal a
contract, open a new account or sign a receipt without paper. For more
information about PenOp visit their website at www.penop.com. PenOp's latest US
Patent number 6,091,835 complements its earlier patents including US Patent Nos.
5,544,255, 5,644,655, 5,647,017,5,818,955, and 6,064,751, New Zealand Patent No.
292439 and Australia Patent No. 688,589. These patents recognize that the core
components of an electronic signature process are to identify the signers,
establish their intent and store a tamper proof document with a visible and
verifiable audit trail of the signing process.
Certain statements contained in this press release, including without
limitation, statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "hopes",
"intends", "expects", and other words of similar import, constitute "forward
looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, which may cause actual events to differ materially from expectations.
Such factors include the following (1) technological, engineering, quality
control or other circumstances which could delay the sale or shipment of
products; (2) economic, business, market and competitive conditions in the
software industry and technological innovations which could affect the Company's
business; (3) the Company's inability to protect its trade secrets or other
proprietary rights, operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of
others or prevent others from infringing on the proprietary rights of the
Company; and (4) general economic and business conditions and the availability
of sufficient financing.
CIC and, its logo are registered trademarks of Communication Intelligence
Corporation. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
