R&D Leader Sarnoff Corporation Opens First International Branch in Flanders, Belgium.

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2000

Sarnoff Europe Now Providing Technical Liaison Services;

Flanders-Based R&D in ICs, Other Technologies To Follow

Sarnoff Corporation, the Princeton, New Jersey-based technology development and commercialization company, today announced that it has established Sarnoff Europe BVBA, a wholly-owned subsidiary and its first branch company outside the U.S., in Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking region of Belgium.

Patrick Murphy, Sarnoff's Vice President and General Consul, made the announcement to information technology executives at a Boston meeting on "The Future of IT Investments in Europe," hosted by the Flanders Foreign Investment Office on the occasion of the U.S. visit of Flanders Minister-President Patrick Dewael to the U.S.

Murphy noted that Sarnoff Europe is already providing liaison services between Sarnoff and its European clients. It is expected to have a staff with 50 to 60 researchers within three years. "We chose Flanders for our first international branch because of its strategic location, its outstanding pool of technical talent, and its dynamic pro-business environment," said Murphy. "Sarnoff needs a strong European presence to serve our clients and generate new business, and Flanders is central to Europe.

"Our number one priority in Europe is a skilled workforce. Flanders has a deep reservoir of engineering talent nurtured by a consortium of Belgian universities and IMEC, the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center. The excellent start-up and administrative support of the Flanders Foreign Investment Office also played a major role in our decision."

In welcoming Sarnoff Corporation, Minister-President of Flanders Patrick Dewael noted, "Sarnoff Corporation invented electronic color TV, the basic process for today's ICs and memory chips, and other technologies that make modern life possible. It is a real pleasure to add them to the Flanders technology base. Over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies have operations in Flanders.

"We are proud of Flanders' growing reputation as a technological innovator. Just recently the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that a Flanders encryption formula, 'RIJNDAEL,' has been chosen as the US government standard to protect sensitive data for the next decades. Two young Flemish engineers won a three-year worldwide competition to replace the aging U.S. benchmark. The growing recognition of Flemish engineering talent is a tremendous booster for the entrepreneurial spirit in our region."

TakeCharge(TM) Is First Offering

Sarnoff Europe's Executive Director is Koen Verhaege, formerly Group Head for Device Design at Sarnoff, who will run the operation in Flanders.

The first offering through Sarnoff Europe is TakeCharge(TM), a new technology for integrated circuit manufacturing that can reduce wafer processing costs by as much as $50 per wafer. The technology is easily implemented in virtually any fabrication plant without major capital expenditures.

Sarnoff Europe is located in Gistel, Flanders, a Belgian seaside community in the province of West Flanders. Its initial activities will focus on semiconductor projects but will gradually encompass activities to support other Sarnoff Corporation business units working in biomedical and information technologies.

About Sarnoff Corporation

Sarnoff Corporation creates and commercializes electronic, biomedical and information technology. Founded in 1942 as RCA Laboratories, Sarnoff has been a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary of SRI International since 1987. The company's decades of innovation include the development of color television and the liquid-crystal display and a leadership role in creating the digital and HDTV standard for the US. Sarnoff works with industry and government clients to develop and improve specific technologies that will help change the world. A key element of the company's overall strategy is the founding of new companies that bring its technologies to market. Seventeen such companies are in various stages of development.

About Flanders Foreign Investment Office

The Flanders Foreign Investment Office, the official economic development agency of the Government of Flanders, is dedicated to assisting international companies to locate in Flanders, Belgium. It guides companies through the processes involved in setting up a business in the region, assists them with site selection, incentives calculation and facilitates business contacts.

In 1999 179 international corporations decided to locate their business in Flanders; this was the sixth year that new global operations in Flanders has been on a steady increase. Twenty-two of all 1999 investments were made in the information technology sector.

The Flanders Foreign Investment Office has four offices in the United States, one each in Boston, Mass; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas and Los Altos, California.

Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, has a population of 5.9 million. The principal city of Flanders is Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium and home to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO. Flanders is a federal state within Belgium, with its own parliament and government.