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EXHIBIT 99.1
Erin Collopy Laura Crowley
Public Relations Investor Relations
General Magic General Magic
408-774-4225 408-774-4457
[email protected] [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GENERAL MAGIC APPOINTS NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Focus on Growth and Profitability
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (January 3, 2001) - General Magic, Inc. (Nasdaq: GMGC), a
premier voice application service provider, today announced that Kathleen M.
Layton has joined the company as chief executive officer and president and will
serve on the company's Board of Directors. Layton will be responsible for
focusing the company on achieving growth and profitability based on aggressive
commercialization of the company's magicTalk(TM) voice platform for high growth
voice market opportunities.
Layton brings a wealth of experience in productizing emerging technologies
and has provided strong market and operational leadership as CEO and president
in various startup operations. With over 20 years experience in providing
solutions to the telecommunications markets, Layton has focused the last few
years on leveraging emerging speech technologies to provide enhanced
telecommunications and Internet products and services.
Layton replaces Dr. Steve Markman, who led the company's drive into voice
applications and the development of its patented magicTalk voice technologies.
Dr. Markman continues as chairman of General Magic's Board of Directors and will
work closely with Layton to expand General Magic's leadership position in the
growing market for voice applications.
"I am very excited to be joining the General Magic team. The magicTalk
voice platform and the company's patented approach to voice user interface
design, combined with the successful delivery of the OnStar Virtual Advisor form
a great launching pad for expanding our business in delivering voice-enabled
applications," said Kathie Layton, new chief executive officer and president of
General Magic. "My immediate objectives are to create and sustain strong revenue
growth and profitability. To do this, we will apply the team's considerable
energy
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and talent to developing and implementing a high growth, focused business
strategy that capitalizes on the company's technology and application leadership
to create market leadership and strong financial performance."
"Kathie has broad-based experience in the high technology industry
launching new businesses focused on emerging technologies and markets. With her
leadership, General Magic is well positioned to capitalize on its investments in
technology and seize the market opportunities in the rapidly expanding market
for voice applications," said Susan Swenson, president and COO of Leap Wireless
International and member of General Magic's Board of Directors. Phil Knell,
president and general manager of WorldCom Conferencing and member of General
Magic's Board added, "With Kathie's experience in forming strategic product and
marketing partnerships, heading an international joint venture, leading a
management buyout, negotiating corporate acquisitions and raising capital
funding, she will be a very strong addition to the General Magic management
team."
Most recently, Layton was chief executive officer of S.A.I.L. Port, a
technology accelerator focused on proliferating the use and advancement of
Speech, Artificial Intelligence and Language (S.A.I.L) technologies, in San
Diego, California. There, Layton promoted S.A.I.L. technologies to universities,
venture capitalists, local governments and entrepreneurs to encourage the launch
of companies whose business leverages these technologies to create new products
and services.
Prior to that, Layton was chief executive officer and president of
OmniVoice Technologies, where she commercialized the company's speech
compression technology, enabling the first handheld wireless voice-messaging
platform over existing narrowband networks and launching the company into
revenue generation in the global marketplace. Subsequently, Lernout and Hauspie
Speech Products acquired the business.
As vice president and general manager of Logica's Network Products
Division, Layton led a management buyout of the division to form Strata Group,
where she was appointed president and chief executive officer. At Strata Group,
Layton and her management team created a high-performing software company that
achieved early market leadership in operational support systems for the emerging
global telecommunications market.
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Additionally, Kathie Layton has held a number of senior leadership
positions in the high tech industry including executive management roles in
business development, sales, customer service and emerging technology markets
for ground-breaking consumer products at Ameritech Corporation; operational
support telecommunications software at Logica, plc; innovative call center
software at Affinitec Corporation; and telecommunications / biotech software at
Control Data Corporation.
Layton holds an executive MBA from Washington University in St. Louis,
Missouri, has completed advanced executive programs at the Kellogg Graduate
School of Management at Northwestern University, and received a B.S. in
Mathematics with honors from Southeast Missouri State University.
ABOUT GENERAL MAGIC
General Magic is a voice application service provider dedicated to delivering
customized voice applications, hosting, and professional services to leading
telecommunications, enterprise and Internet companies. With its award-winning
VoiceXML-based magicTalk communications platform and years of experience,
General Magic offers the premier voice user interface that combines language,
personality, and logic, creating a natural conversation between people and
information. General Magic creates value for its customers by building voice
solutions that strengthen customer relations, deliver value-added services, and
provide access to content anytime, anywhere. General Magic is headquartered in
Sunnyvale, California. For additional information about General Magic, visit the
company's web site at http://www.generalmagic.com.
# # #
General Magic notes that the forward-looking statements in this press release
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause
industry trends, or actual results, performance or achievement to be materially
different from any future trends, results, performance or achievements expressed
or implied by these statements. These include, among others, risks and
uncertainties concerning the adequacy of the Company's financial resources to
execute its business plan; market acceptance of the Company's technologies and
services; the Company's ability to attract, retain and motivate key technical,
marketing and management personnel; the ability of the Company to establish and
maintain relationships with businesses that have high volume customer
interactions, and to establish alliances with companies that offer technology
solutions for such businesses; the challenges inherent in the development,
delivery and implementation of complex technologies; the ability of the
Company's third party technology partners to timely develop, license or support
technology necessary to the Company's services; and the Company's ability to
respond to competitive developments. These and other risks and uncertainties are
detailed in General Magic's Registration Statement on Form 10-Q filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on November 14, 2000.
General Magic and magicTalk are trademarks of General Magic, Inc., which may be
registered in some jurisdictions.
