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Exhibit 99.1
NEWS RELEASE [PICTURETEL LOGO]
Contact for PictureTel: Contact for Spectel:
Kevin Caviston/Nicole Burdette Claire Mc Bride
O'Keeffe & Company, Inc. Spectel
610-325-6553 011-353-1207-5627
SPECTEL ACQUIRES MULTILINK
FROM PICTURETEL CORPORATION
ANDOVER, MA, AND DUBLIN, IRELAND, NOVEMBER 29, 2000 - PictureTel(R) Corporation
(Nasdaq: PCTL), the world leader in integrated collaboration, and Spectel, a
global leader in conferencing solutions, today announced that Spectel has
acquired substantially all of the assets of MultiLink,(R) Inc. from PictureTel
Corporation. Established in 1984, MultiLink is the worldwide market leader in
audioconferencing technology.
Spectel is a leading provider of state-of-the-art conferencing
solutions to service bureaus, next generation carriers, Application Service
Providers (ASPs), and corporations across the globe. The acquisition will
significantly increase Spectel's worldwide share of the voice-data collaboration
market. Already established globally, Spectel will leverage the MultiLink
acquisition to strengthen its presence within the U.S.
Under the terms of the agreement, Spectel has acquired substantially
all of the assets of MultiLink,(R) Inc. from PictureTel Corporation for $26
million in cash plus up to $4 million of Spectel common stock based on a formula
tied to MultiLink's total 2000 revenue, which will be determined as of December
31, 2000.
"The MultiLink sale marks an important milestone for PictureTel,"
states Lew Jaffe, president, PictureTel. "This is the last action we needed to
take to refocus on our core capability - developing and delivering real-time
visual collaboration solutions. In addition, the sale brings important cash
reserves to support these efforts. We have sold off non-core businesses, we have
restructured our management team to more tightly align products and service
offerings, and, importantly, we are achieving significant marketplace traction
with the PictureTel 900 Series(TM), the first in a family of iPower(TM)
products. The PictureTel 900 Series is being selected, time and time again, by
leading organizations as they work to best leverage their corporate knowledge
resources."
"We are proud to welcome the MultiLink team to Spectel. The experience
they bring from over 16 years of building and maintaining market leadership in
global conferencing systems will be a tremendous asset to our company," said
Spectel's President and CEO, Gerard Moore. "MultiLink brings 100 U.S.-based
employees and worldwide market leadership in terms of their installed base. This
acquisition significantly strengthens Spectel's ability to serve the global
conferencing systems market. Our objective is to provide service providers and
enterprise customers with superior technology and support that will allow them
to build scalable, high-
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performance conferencing services and applications. The acquisition provides
the ideal platform to transform that objective into reality."
ABOUT MULTILINK
MultiLink is the worldwide market leader in audioconferencing technology.
Since 1984, MultiLink's audio and data conferencing solutions have been utilized
by the world's leading service providers, Fortune 1000 corporations, consulting
firms, and federal/state/local government agencies. B-to-B companies of all
sizes depend on MultiLink technology to conduct critical business meetings
addressing investor relations, crisis management, constituent relations, project
management, focus groups and polling services. MultiLink is an ISO
9001-registered corporation. For further corporate, product and service
information, visit the web site at www.multilink.com or call 1-800-YOUR-BRIDGE.
ABOUT SPECTEL
Spectel is a leading provider of proprietary multimedia conferencing
solutions. The company brought to market the world's first fully integrated web
portal voice and data conferencing system for use by Conference Service
Providers, new generation carriers, application service providers (ASPs) and
enterprise customers. With worldwide headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, Spectel
conducts business on a global basis through its regional offices in Atlanta,
Boston, Chicago, Denver, London, and Singapore. Customer and system support is
available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Spectel customers include companies
such as ACT Teleconferencing, American Airlines, American Express, Citizens
Conferencing, Eircom, Ericsson, Gateway, Glyphics, Intel, Nomura, net2phone,
Royal Bank of Canada, Siemens, Singapore Telecom, Telenor, and UBS Warburg. For
more information regarding Spectel please visit the Web site at
www.spectelglobal.com.
ABOUT PICTURETEL
PictureTel Corporation (Nasdaq: PCTL) is the world leader in
developing, manufacturing, and marketing a full range of visual- and
audio-collaboration and streaming-video solutions. The company's systems meet
customers' collaboration needs from the desktop to the boardroom. PictureTel
also markets network conferencing servers and a comprehensive portfolio of
enterprise-wide services. Additional PictureTel information is available at
www.picturetel.com. PictureTel collaboration products and services eliminate the
barrier of distance, enabling people to be Anywhere Now(TM).
This release includes projections and other forward-looking statements about the
company's revenues, earnings, and other measures of economic performance. Actual
results could differ materially from forecasts due to many factors such as, for
example, competitive pressures, changes in technology and the difficulty of
forecasting in overseas markets and indirect channels. Additional information
concerning risks that could cause actual results to differ is contained in the
company's annual report on Form 10K as filed with the SEC. The company
undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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PictureTel is a registered trademark of PictureTel. All other marks are the
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owner
