SDL plc ("SDL International" or "the Company"), a leading provider of globalization solutions, today announces that it has agreed to acquire the Automated Real Time Translation Division from Transparent Language, Inc. ("Transparent"), for a total consideration of US$9m. The assets being acquired by SDL International include the intellectual property rights to Transparent's TranscendRT™ machine translation technology and related products, including the Enterprise Translation Server, which provide instant language translation of e-mail, web pages, and documents.

  The consideration will be satisfied with the payment of $1.5m in cash and through the issue of $7.5m in new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Capital of the Company. The division being acquired made a net loss of $3.7 million for the nine months ended 31 December 2000, which reflects the cost of developing and launching the TranscendRT™ technology. The acquisition is expected to be completed by 15th February 2001.

The Directors of SDL International believe that combining the Enterprise Translation Server's real time translation technology with SDL International's leading edge products SDLX and SDLWebFlow, will enable the Company to provide a complete solution for companies to manage multilingual web site content. The combination of SDL International's expertise in computer aided translation via its leading translation memory product SDLX with the high performance Enterprise Translation Server will provide a powerful commercial solution in the field of automated translation.

Strategy behind the Acquisition

SDL International's strategy is to consolidate its lead as the world's pre-eminent globalization solutions provider. The acquisition of Transparent's technology will allow SDL International to further its position as the leading software company in the fields of globalization and localization, and dramatically increases the leverage of the Company's existing software and multi-lingual content management products, namely SDLX and SDLWebFlow.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mark Lancaster, Chairman and Chief Executive of SDL International, said:

"The acquisition of Transparent's TranscendRT™ engine and Enterprise Translation Server technology significantly advances SDL International's involvement in real time automated translation. We believe that the technology being acquired offers the most comprehensive and advanced real time translation technology available on the market and brings forward by several years our intention of offering a fully automated and accurate globalization solution. Transparent's technology will compliment our leading multi-lingual content management and computer aided translation workflow systems.

"These solutions are geared towards companies that use internal Intranets and B2B web sites, as well as real time email translation functions. This complete solution addresses the requirements for businesses that have an international sales and marketing focus. We believe that SDL International is the first company to combine machine translation technology with computer aided translation technology and, when added to our workflow solutions and our complete integration of content management systems with companies such as Vignette and Interwoven, we will have the ability to provide customers with the first real time, low cost solution to bridge all multilingual barriers."

For further information please contact:

Mark Lancaster
Tel: 01628 410127
Chairman & Chief Executive

Paul Davies
Tel: 020 7523 8309
Collins Stewart

Bobby Morse/Louise Bolton
Tel: 020 7466 5000
Buchanan Communications
bobbym@buchanan.uk.com

louiseb@buchanan.uk.com

Background information

About Transparent language, Inc., the Enterprise Translation Server, and the TranscendRT™ automated translation engine:

Transparent Language, Inc., (www.transparentlanguage.com) founded in 1990, is a specialist language technology developer and multilingual e-learning product company based in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Transparent employs 90 staff and had revenues for the year ended 31st March 2000 of US$15.2 million. It has sales offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Hong Kong, and Paris, London, Frankfurt and Brussels in Europe.

The Enterprise Translation Server and the TranscendRT™ engine are leading technologies that enable automated real-time translations to be performed on internal or external networks. Documents, emails, web pages and chat sessions can be translated in 23 different language directions. The technology links directly into Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, Lotus Notes and Sametime, Sybase Enterprise Portal and performs automated real-time translation of email, documents, chat, web pages and other content so each participant views all text in his or her language. Existing clients for this product include Lucent, Corning Cable, J&R Computer, EBSCO Publishing, EDS and Brady Manufacturing.

The acquisition includes FreeTranslation.com, an automatic translation demonstration site that performs approximately 200,000 translation jobs per day. Also being acquired by SDL International is Transparent's PlusTranslation.com site, a leading internet translation service bureau providing fast, efficient and reliable human translation services over the Web.