Lernout & Hauspie
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, or L&H, was a Belgium-based speech and language technology leader company, which was founded by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, and which went bankrupt in 2001. The company was based in Ypres, Flanders, in what was then called the Flanders Language Valley (mimicking the Silicon Valley).
History
L&H was founded in 1987 by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie. After a difficult start, it quickly grew, and, in 1995, it went public on the Nasdaq (LHSP) and was also quoted on the Easdaq. Its headquarters were in Ypres, Belgium, and in Burlington, Massachusetts. At one moment market capitalisation was as high as $9 billion.
Flanders played an important role in helping and investing in the company and the surrounding Flanders Language Valley. L&H had quickly become Flanders' pride.
On August 8, 2000, a financial scandal was revealed (e.g. recording fictitious transactions in Korea) by the Wall Street Journal, and, in April 2001, Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, the co-founders, were arrested. L&H went finally bankrupt in October 25, 2001, after struggling for about a year.
The technology has been bought by Scansoft after the bankrupty.
See also
External links
- http://www.lhs.com, one of their old web sites, now leading to Scansoft web site
- http://www.lhsl.com, another one of their old web sites, now leading as well to Scansoft
- "How High-Tech Dream Shattered in Scandal at Lernout & Hauspie", an article of the WSJ