Lernout & Hauspie announced it purchased all the stock of the Brussels Translation Group (BTG), a private organization that invested in the development of L&H’s iTranslator services, a family of Internet and Intranet translation solutions. L&H’s iTranslator allows fast translation over the Internet and Intranet using a combination of computer programs and human post editing in a multitude of language pairs (currently 14). The purchase, made for approximately $42 million in cash and the assumption of $17 million in debt, will enable L&H to capture all revenues and profits from the sales of L&H iTranslator. L&H expects the transaction to be dilutive for 1999 and accretive in the year 2000. L&H does not anticipate any write-off of in process research & development. L&H announced in March of this year availability of the L&H iTranslator to ISPs, portals and over corporate Intranets. The new L&H iTranslator offerings leverage the Internet’s fast, simple delivery and communications capabilities to provide more easily accessible, affordable translation to a broader range of users than those who have traditionally purchased L&H translation services. www.lhsl.com.