Lernout & Hauspie Names Roel Pieper, Former President & CEO of Tandem, as Vice Chairman of Its Board.

IEPER, BELGIUM and BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1999--

Pieper Brings Exceptional Depth and Breadth of Technology, Business Expertise from Tenure at Philips, Compaq, Tandem and Various

Board-Level Positions

Lernout & Hauspie (NASDAQ:LHSP; EASDAQ:LHSP) (L&H(TM)) announced today that it has named Mr. Roel Pieper as vice chairman of its Board of Directors. Mr. Pieper brings a wealth of strategic and computer industry expertise to the position as a result of his experience in top management positions in several Fortune 1000 technology companies. As vice chairman, Mr. Pieper will advise the board on strategic matters and business development. L&H also expects he will leverage his computer industry expertise and his international experience to further develop the company's relational network.

"We are very excited to have the rare and exceptional opportunity to add to our board a professional whose expertise so perfectly matches the skills required to help us execute our vision and long term strategy," said Gaston Bastiaens, president and CEO of L&H.

"We believe that Mr. Pieper is an outstanding addition to our board," said, Pol Hauspie, co-founder and chairman of the board for L&H. "He will enrich the board with his broad and deep understanding of the U.S. and international computer market, the intricacies of relationship building in that arena and the pivotal role that speech and language technology will play in the computing arena."

Mr. Pieper's career spans twenty plus year's experience in the computer industry, and includes speech technology expertise as a result of his most recent position as executive vice president of Royal Philips Electronics N.V., where he was also a member of the board of directors. Prior to his position with Philips, Mr. Pieper was president and CEO of Tandem Computers where he prepared the company for its acquisition by Compaq Computer Corporation. At Compaq, Pieper was senior vice president, responsible for worldwide sales and marketing. Mr. Pieper has also served as president and CEO of UB Networks, a subsidiary of Tandem Computers and held executive level positions with Software AG and AT&T's Unix Systems Laboratories. He is a member of the board of directors for several other companies, including Computer Associates, General Magic and Quokka Sports.

In addition to his position on the L&H board, Mr. Pieper will also serve as a part time consultant to L&H's senior management to help broaden L&H's strategic partnerships and alliances and prepare the company for future growth.

"I firmly believe that speech and language technologies will play an integral role in the future of computers and consumer electronics, particularly as its relates to Internet applications and e-commerce," said Mr. Pieper. "I am delighted to have the opportunity to help expand the potential for speech and language solutions and believe that L&H will be the company that leads the market into the new millennium. It is unmatched in its breadth and depth of offerings, experience and vision for the industry."

About Lernout & Hauspie

Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) is a global leader in advanced speech and language solutions for vertical markets, computers, automobiles, telecommunications, embedded products, consumer goods and the Internet. The company is making the speech user interface (SUI) the keystone of simple, convenient interaction between humans and technology, and is using advanced translation technology to break down language barriers. The company provides a wide range of offerings, including: customized solutions for corporations; core speech technologies marketed to OEMs; end user and retail applications for continuous speech products in horizontal and vertical markets; and document creation, human and machine translation services, Internet translation offerings, and linguistic tools. L&H's products and services originate in four basic areas: automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), digital speech and music compression (SMC) and text-to-text (translation). For more information, please visit Lernout & Hauspie on the World Wide Web at www.lhsl.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information, including statements regarding L&H's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. Such statements include, without limitation, statements involving the anticipated contributions to be made to L&H by Mr. Pieper and the future prospects of the speech and language technology industry and L&H. Readers are cautioned that such forward- looking statements involve known and unknown risk and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to materially differ from those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks inherent in new product introduction, the risk that newly introduced products may contain undetected errors or defects or otherwise not perform as anticipated, the relatively early stage of the speech and language technology market, uncertainty of speech technology market growth, rapid technological change and intense competition, as well as other risks set forth in L&H's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this Report. L&H expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in L&H's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Lernout & Hauspie can be found on the World Wide Web at www.lhsl.com. All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of L&H and the respective companies.