News release |
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Zi acquires the Magic Lantern Group of Companies to complement its Oztime e-learning investment
Calgary, AB (March 20, 2002) - Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: ZICA) (TSE: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, today announced it has acquired all of the shares of Magic Lantern Communications Ltd., an established Canadian education products and services provider.
"The acquisition of Magic Lantern provides Zi with a North American-based company with which we can leverage our relationships in China and capitalize on our Oztime investment. It is Zi's current intention to monetize our e-learning investment through a separate public company," said Michael E. Lobsinger, Chairman and CEO of Zi Corporation. "The complementary businesses of Magic Lantern and Oztime provide us with the opportunity to source North American content for the Chinese market and a strong international management team with depth and breadth of experience."
Magic Lantern was founded in 1975 and is one of Canada's leading distributors of educational content, including videos. The company has exclusive distribution rights to over 300 film producers representing over 14,000 titles, and its customers include 9,000 out of 12,000 English schools in Canada, Canadian Learning Television, TV Ontario and History Television. In addition, Tutorbuddy Inc., a subsidiary of Magic Lantern acquired in the transaction, is an internet-based content-delivery service that provides content and related educational services on-demand to students, teachers and parents. Magic Lantern's content and Tutorbuddy's technology will be highly complementary to the Oztime offering in China. Sonoptic Technologies Inc., the second Magic Lantern subsidiary acquired by Zi, provides high-quality, state-of-the-art digital video encoding services and has developed a proprietary videobase indexing software that allows users to easily and quickly aggregate, bookmark, re-sort and add their own comment boxes to pre-existing content.
The Magic Lantern group of companies generated approximately $5 million of annual revenues during their last fiscal year, was profitable before non-recurring costs, and was acquired for a price equivalent to one-half times annual revenue. Zi completed the Magic Lantern transaction by acquiring MagicVision Media Inc. with the issuance of 100,000 common shares of Zi, a certain portion of which are subject to performance escrow based on revenues, and paying approximately $2 million to subscribe for shares of MagicVision. These subscription proceeds were used to facilitate the management buyout by MagicVision of the Magic Lantern group of companies.
All dollars amounts are expressed in Canadian funds.
About Zi Corporation
Zi Corporation (www.zicorp.com) is a market-driven technology company delivering intelligent interface solutions to enhance the user experience of wireless and consumer technologies. The company's core technology product, eZiText connects people to short messaging, e-mail, e-commerce, Web browsing and similar applications in almost any language. Zi supports its strategic partners from offices in Calgary, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, Shenzhen and Stockholm. A publicly traded company, Zi Corporation is listed on the NASDAQ National Market (ZICA) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ZIC).
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For more information:
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Media Inquiries: Shawn Kelly Zi Corporation Corporate Communications Manager Phone: 403 537 9770 skelly@zicorp.com |
Investor Inquiries: Dale Kearns Zi Corporation Chief Financial Officer Phone: 403 233 8875 investor@zicorp.com |