NEW YORK, NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA and SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA and TORONTO, CANADA — (Marketwire) — 11/28/11 — Intertainment Media Inc. (“Intertainment” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: INT)(OTCQX: ITMTF)(FRANKFURT: I4T) announced today that Intertainment has agreed to acquire, and forthwith transfer to its subsidiary, Ortsbo Inc. (), an initial interest in Haifa, Israel based Lexifone Communications Systems (2010) Ltd. (“Lexifone”), developers of proprietary voice translation technology platforms. The Company has also secured additional rights to purchase all outstanding shares of Lexifone at a future date. The closing of the transaction is subject to satisfaction of conditions precedent in favour of the Company and all necessary board and regulatory approvals.
Under the terms of the term sheet executed by the parties, the Company will have the right to purchase 25% of the Common Shares of Lexifone (the “Purchased Shares”) for One Million Five Hundred Thousand Canadian Dollars ($1.5 MM CDN) and commons shares of Intertainment Media the value of which will equal Five Hundred Thousand Canadian Dollars ($500,000) based on the price per share of Intertainment at the end of trading on a day preceding the closing of the transaction on the Toronto Venture Exchange. The Company shall have the option to purchase the remaining shares over the next 2 years. Upon closing of the transaction with Intertainment, the Purchased Shares will be immediately transferred to its subsidiary, Ortsbo Inc.
Lexifone delivers simple and effective real time speech translation via its proprietary generic software platform. Lexifone-s intellectual property around statistical optimization of voice data, in conjunction with its learning based linguistic and semantic translation, delivers best of breed domain specific translations. These live voice to voice translations are accomplished using a simplistic standard land line telephone, or by a mobile phone, or through VoIP on any Internet connected device. As a general example; a user of the Lexifone system, using a land line telephone, simply calls a geographically local Lexifone number, selects the language they will use and speaks into the phone in their native tongue, their speech is then repeated back over the phone in the chosen translation language. Lexifone will also offer direct connection applications to mobile, portable, VoIP and other Internet devices, making it easy and simple for users to engage in voice to voice translation.
Adding to its growing suite of services, Ortsbo users around the world, which totaled over 40 Million in October 2011, will be able to interact with friends, family and colleagues via both text and voice providing greater ease and flexibility to its platform.
Lexifone is run by Dr. Ike Sagie who brings with him a track record of over 30 years of successful software research, management and entrepreneurship. Dr. Sagie is a former scientist and senior manager at IBM research laboratories and later co-founder of Attunity (NASDAQ: ATTU) and is an active director at LNTS speech technologies. In addition to managing the company, Dr. Sagie, an expert in computational linguistics, heads the research activities in Lexifone.
Lexifone CEO Dr. Sagie explains: “At Lexifone we put people in the center of the translation process. It-s all about the experience of communication coupled with an easy, effective user experience. Working with our technology delivery partners, our expert linguists have created the foundation for the Lexifone service and with smart technology Lexifone is ever-evolving and improving. Highly sophisticated technology works behind the scenes but what the user experiences is the ultimate in simplicity – that is the beauty of Lexifone. People are at the center, not technology. Nothing could be more straightforward. All you have to do is speak.”
The commercial applications for voice translations present significant opportunities for Ortsbo. In addition to its text platform, voice can break down the language barriers in healthcare, emergency, social services, travel, and other services where instant, vocal translation is preferable over text or chat.
“We-re very excited to have the opportunity to invest and work with the exceptional team at Lexifone. Their expertise and experience provides Ortsbo the opportunity to move into the voice translation space quickly and effectively with a “learning” propriety speech translation platform,” said David Lucatch, President of Ortsbo / CEO Intertainment Media. “Voice translation offers Ortsbo another pillar in which to launch commercial applications.”
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About Ortsbo Inc.
Ortsbo () enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today-s most popular social media platforms.
Ortsbo Inc. is a subsidiary of Intertainment Media Inc., a Rich Media Applications leader, focused on delivering leading edge technology and marketing solutions enabling clients to power enhanced branding, loyalty initiatives and consumer engagement. Selected as a Microsoft Global Agency Initiative partner, Intertainment has joined an elite group of interactive agencies worldwide that Microsoft recommends to its Partners and Customers.
Ortsbo-s flagship product for social media () supports global communications with instant translation capability, real time multi-lingual social media chat connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile browsers as well as all major search engine chat platforms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! along with Facebook, iChat, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Ovi, Lotus Sametime, LiveJournal and Tencent QQ and QQ International, China-s largest chat platforms and Twitter.
Ortsbo allows users to communicate with family, friends and colleagues around the world, providing users with the ability to break down language and cultural barriers through its easy to use, language centric interface. User demographics have continued to favor the BRIC countries with China remaining the number one usage country for Ortsbo followed by Brazil, the US, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, Argentina, Russia and India. Ortsbo-s Top 10 user countries have a combined population of over 3.4 Billion people.
International rock legend, accomplished global entrepreneur and one of the world-s most recognized personalities, Gene Simmons has endorsed Ortsbo.com, having signed on as a business partner and to serve as Ortsbo-s official spokesperson.
The personification of today-s globally connected, multi-cultural citizen, Simmons is fluent in five languages, including English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and German, as well as some Japanese and he-s working to add Mandarin to his repertoire. Simmons will lend his legendary personality to help spread the word about Ortsbo-s unique, translator experience platform that integrates seamlessly with the most popular social media platforms to enable users from around the world to instantly send and receive messages in their native language.
Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash to become an official spokesperson for Ortsbo. Leading Ortsbo-s global sports fan program, Nash will present and participate in a number of online fan chats with international athletes from a number of sports disciplines.
Intertainment Media owns and operates a number of key properties including Ad Taffy, itiBiti, Ortsbo and Magnum. For more information on the Company and its properties, please visit .
Headquartered in the Toronto, Canada region, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Mateo, CA, Intertainment Media Inc. is listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol “INT” (TSX VENTURE: INT) and in the US on the OTCQX under the symbol “ITMTF”. Intertainment is also traded in Europe, on XETRA under the symbol “I4T”.
This news release may contain certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, is forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the company-s disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at . The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
This release may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of US laws. These statements are based on management-s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements. Intertainment Media Inc. does not assume any obligation to update any forward looking information contained in this news release.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
For Ortsbo / Intertainment Media Inc.:
David Lucatch, CEO
800-395-9943 / 905-763-3510
Public Relations / Media Inquiries:
SS / PR
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