January 14, 2002
Intelligent Compression Technologies, Inc. (ICT) announced today that they have licensed their data compression technology to Houghton Mifflin (a Vivendi Universal company) for use with Houghton Mifflin's electronic distribution of reference books.
On the heels of its success of providing The American Heritage® Dictionary and Roget's II: The New Thesaurus to end users on-line, Houghton Mifflin is introducing a downloadable version for off-line use. Reference materials of this size could take hours to download using standard 56kbps dial-up lines, which the majority of Houghton Mifflin's consumers use for Internet access. ICT's Universal-Xpress™ data compression product is used to compress these reference books to a small enough size to take what would have otherwise been an unacceptably long download, and made it much faster.
According to David Jost, Vice President, Electronic Development, Electronic Publishing, Trade and Reference Division, Houghton Mifflin Company, "Aside from the value of the electronic content (i.e. reference materials), download time is one of the most critical elements in the business of electronic publishing of reference materials. ICT's product enabled us to shrink the content and hence speed the download time, far beyond anything otherwise available on the market."
"We are very pleased to have been selected by Houghton Mifflin to apply our advanced compression technology to support their electronic publishing initiatives" said Mark Brandstein, VP Marketing and Business Development at ICT. "As recognized by Houghton Mifflin, advanced data compression technology is necessary for making data delivery over narrowband links comparable to broader band links."
About Intelligent Compression Technologies
Intelligent Compression Technologies, Inc., a privately held company located in Quincy, MA, provides software compression and network acceleration products for the Communications, Internet, and Networking industries where data delivery speed over a relatively limited bandwidth is an issue. ICT's AcceleNet™ product enables wide-area wireless networks (i.e. 2G/2.5G) to operate at 56kbps modem-like speeds and dial-up 56kbps lines to operate at broadband-like speeds, enabling fast remote access to Email with attachments, corporate applications, Intranets and the Web. ICT also licenses compression software to OEMs, which dramatically shrinks Microsoft Office™ files, XML data and common web images to enable faster file transfers, software delivery and reduced storage capacity. Visit us at www.accelenet.com.
About Houghton Mifflin Company
Houghton Mifflin Company, a unit of Vivendi Universal Publishing (the third leading worldwide publisher), is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with over $1 billion in sales. Houghton Mifflin publishes textbooks, instructional technology, assessments and other educational materials for elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and fiction and award-winning non-fiction for adults and young readers. Additionally, Houghton Mifflin offers computer-administered testing programs and services for the professional and certification markets. With its origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin today combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. The Company's Web site can be found at www.hmco.com.
About Vivendi Universal
Vivendi Universal provides Media and Communications and Environmental Services. The media and communications business is divided into five business segments: Music, Publishing, TV and Film, Telecoms and Internet. The Telecoms business provides a broad range of telecommunications services, including mobile and fixed telephony, Internet access and data services and transmission, principally in Europe. Vivendi Environnement, is a 63-percent effectively owned subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, which operates the environmental services business, with operations around the globe. The Company's corporate website is located at www.vivendiuniversal.com
Media contact: pr@accelenet.com