Press Releases

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EBT Press Releases

EBT SIGNS MAJOR ASIAN PACIFIC DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH HONG HONG PRINTING COMPANY

Agreement Meets Asia-Pacific Region's Growing Demand For Open, Standards-Based Online Publishing Solutions

PROVIDENCE, RI, USA, July 18, 1995 -- Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT), the leading international provider of standards-based electronic publishing solutions, today announced a distribution agreement with Hong Hong Printing Company Sdn. Bhd., one of the largest electronic printing and publishing firms in the Asia-Pacific region. The agreement calls for Hong Hong Printing Company Sdn. Bhd. and its subsidiary, Hong Hong Documents Sdn. Bhd., to resell EBT's DynaText(tm) family of products in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The agreement will serve to meet the growing demand for open, SGML-based (Standard Generalized Markup Language, ISO 8879) electronic publishing solutions in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

"The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing tremendous growth in the adoption of SGML and electronic publishing," said Tony Mudie, Managing Director of EBT Australia. "The region has dominated the publishing and distribution of complex, diverse, and highly technical reference material for many years. These types of publications are natural candidates for migration to SGML, and it is timely that a highly respected organization such as Hong Hong Printing Company is establishing the necessary resources and expertise to satisfy the current demand for SGML-based electronic publishing solutions. The Hong Hong Printing Company agreement, coupled with the recent establishment of the EBT Australia subsidiary, enables EBT to deliver total electronic publishing solutions to this exciting growth market."

"It is essential that Hong Hong Printing Company move quickly to support the fast-emerging SGML market to assist our customers' progress into electronic publishing and distribution," said Mr. Chan Hong Saik, Managing Director of Hong Hong Printing Company Sdn. Bhd. "To achieve this goal, we have adopted SGML and have entered into an agreement with EBT, the company with the most outstanding record and products in this field. It is a logical development for companies in the manufacturing and publishing field to adopt electronic publishing, and, through our agreement with EBT, Hong Hong Printing Company is demonstrating its commitment to the growing needs of this market."

EBT Australia, EBT's recently established subsidiary in the Asia-Pacific region, will help to support Hong Hong Printing Company by providing technical assistance from EBT's Support Center based in Sydney, Australia.

In October of 1993, EBT introduced an Asian language version of the DynaText electronic publishing system. The underlying multi-byte technology is capable of handling a variety of Asian languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean. A forthcoming Unicode-based, multi-byte-enabled internationalized application will enable EBT to maintain and ship a single version of DynaText, with the latest feature set, to the entire world market. DynaText is currently the only SGML-based online delivery system capable of handling the full range of multi-lingual documents and many of EBT's largest customers, such as Novell, Inc., are now delivering their online documentation in a variety of Asian languages.

DynaText, introduced in 1990, is the world's leading SGML-based online publishing system. DynaText accepts any valid SGML document and automatically builds a dynamic electronic book that enables users to quickly browse, search and annotate large documents. DynaText electronic books can include an interactive table of contents, hyperlinks, tables, equations, graphics, audio, video and animation. DynaText runs on Microsoft(R) Windows(tm) and Apple Macintosh(R) systems, as well as all major UNIX(R) platforms. DynaText currently resides on millions of desktops through widespread deployment by Autodesk, Borland, Legent, Novell, Packard Bell, Siemens Nixdorf, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Texas Instruments, AT&T, Australian Telecom, British Telecom, Ericsson Telekom, Nokia Telecommunications, and Northern Telecom.

DynaWeb(tm) enables DynaText electronic book publishers to take full advantage of the Internet distribution channel for disseminating large collections of information electronically. DynaWeb is a server-side tool that enables DynaText publishers' electronic books to be viewed by existing Web client browsers. DynaWeb is designed to fully exploit the SGML structures already in place in publishers' DynaText electronic books. DynaWeb adds powerful search and navigation functionality to the multitude of Web client browsers, and does so in a manner that is efficient and sustainable. DynaWeb currently runs on a variety of major UNIX platforms.

Hong Hong Printing Company Sdn. Bhd. is a well established, profitable, privately held corporation with its headquarters in Penang, Malaysia, and with operations there and in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Hong Hong Printing Company employs over 400 people, and will further train qualified individuals for its new electronic publishing and distribution business.

Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT) provides corporate and commercial publishers with the industry's most comprehensive standards-based online publishing solution. EBT, a founding member of SGML Open and the MIT World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C), develops and markets a product suite engineered from the ground up around SGML. EBT's cross-platform software tools enable customers to manage and publish information to CD-ROM, World-Wide Web, LAN, and print from a single, standards-based source. EBT information can be accessed from its home page on the Web at http://www.ebt.com/. EBT is privately held and headquartered in Providence, RI, USA.

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is an international ISO standard for document markup used in the publication and delivery of electronic information. SGML has been adopted by industries with large volumes of in-house publishing including aircraft, airlines, automotive, computer, defense, electronics, legal, pharmaceuticals, securities, telecommunications and transportation, as well as by government systems integrators, commercial publishing companies, and academic researchers.

Media contacts:

Paul Lamoureux
EBT
Providence, RI, USA
(401) 421-9550

Tony Mudie
EBT Australia
Sydney, Australia
+ [61] 2 262-4655

Mr. Chan Hong Saik
Hong Hong Printing Company Sdn. Bhd.
Penang, Malaysia
+ [60] 4 890-8143

DynaText, DynaWeb, and EBT are trademarks of Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company Ltd. All other company, product or service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.