Dejima Announces Strategic Partnership With Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. to Jointly Develop Natural Interaction Applications.

Business/Technology Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 2001

New Applications to be integrated into Matsushita Electric Works,

Ltd. Systems and Products

Dejima Inc., a natural interaction solution provider, today announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (MEW), a leading multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Japan, also part of the Matsushita Group. The two companies are jointly developing natural interaction applications that will provide direct access and ease of use for MEW's customers to operate, and interact with, the company's information equipment, home appliances, building products, automation controls, and other products.

Prior to this formal partnership, MEW and Silicon Valley-based Dejima have been working together under a research and development license agreement. MEW decided to pursue a more formal strategic partnership after evaluating the performance of Dejima's technology within a multi-media user interface project to be used in a home automation system and in an information retrieval system.

"Dejima's technology offers a perfect bridge between what products and services can do, and what humans want to do," says a senior manager of MEW's systems development. "By helping MEW make products and services that are intuitively easy to use, Dejima is enabling our customers to access the full range of functionality and benefits that our products and services can offer, and therefore contributing to our fundamental goal of improving the quality of human life. We look forward to continuing to work with Dejima to solve some of the oldest and most fundamental problems in technology/human interaction."

"This is a significant strategic relationship between Dejima and Matsushita, one of the best known global manufacturers," said Antoine Blondeau, Dejima's CEO. "Integration of the Dejima Direct(TM) platform to Matsushita's products and services will deliver a unique competitive advantage to Matsushita in its quest to offer a rich user experience to end users. The consumer-driven approach of Matsushita validates the key benefits of our offering in the command and control market space."

About Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (MEW) carries on the work of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of the Matsushita Group. In 1918, he began manufacturing and selling wiring devices in Osaka and established his company in 1935. Our mission as a manufacturer has always been to offer products to promote peace and happiness for all people. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., well known around the world for its electric and electronic equipment business, is our sibling company. MEW is comprised of five divisional companies operating in the domains of electrical construction materials, home appliances, building products, electronic and plastic materials, and automation controls. In all of these areas, we conduct research and development, manufacturing, sales, product design and installation, and servicing. This comprehensive approach enables us to remain sensitive to social trends. The MEW Group has 42,679 employees; 15 plants in Japan and 26 overseas; 162 sales offices and 2,272 distributors in Japan; and 73 overseas sales operations. We have a large research and development network with 12 laboratories in Japan and one overseas. As we enter the 21st century, we have adopted the new slogan of Amenity and Intelligence: Applying Intelligence for Amenity Environments. The new slogan reflects our stance of providing smart solutions integrating hardware, software, and services. With this slogan in mind, we will work toward resolving the challenges that face our society, such as lower birth rates and the increasing population of the elderly. We expect this to raise corporate value and also benefit society as a whole. For more information go to http://www.mew.co.jp/e-index.htm/

About Dejima, Inc.

Dejima, Inc. develops natural interaction software products that enable companies to provide their end-users with easy, intuitive, direct access to applications and services. By making technology more human-centric, Dejima's solutions are revolutionizing the way people access and use wireless services, enterprise applications, and consumer appliances. Dejima Direct(TM) access means more people using more services more often -- and more revenues for Dejima's licensees. Founded in 1998, with offices in San Jose (headquarters), London, and Tokyo, the company is privately funded and backed by companies like InfoSpace, Mitsubishi Corporation , Omron, RIM, and Sonera.

For more information on Dejima and our technology, please visit http://www.dejima.com.