SakhrSoftware Acquires Dial Directions

Launches First Real-Time, Spoken Arabic Translation on iPhone and Blackberry
WASHINGTON & SAN FRANCISCO--(Business Wire)--
Sakhr Software, a global leader in advanced Arabic speech and language
solutions, today announced that it has acquired Dial Directions, a leading
provider of voice-entry technology for mobile devices and services. With Dial
Directions` network-based speech recognition technology and mobile applications
expertise, Sakhr Software is set to deliver a new wave of technologies to enable
real-time speech to speech translation for Arabic.

For nearly two decades, Sakhr Software has been pioneering and developing the
world`s richest knowledge base for Arabic natural language processing (NLP).
Sakhr Software has delivered many industry firsts for Arabic NLP, including
Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Machine Translation (MT), and search and
information mining. More than 100 customers, including the U.S. Department of
Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of
Justice, use Sakhr Software`s technology to address Arabic language needs. By
delivering industry-leading and proven products, Sakhr Software has achieved
outstanding financial performance, generating more than $25 million in profits
since 2007. The acquisition of Dial Directions will further expand Sakhr`s
technology portfolio and market leadership in Arabic language and speech
solutions.

"Sakhr`s mission is to develop technology to enable communication across the
Arabic language barrier," said Steve Skancke, president, Sakhr Software USA. "At
Dial Directions we found exceptional talent and unique technology, accelerating
Sakhr`s ability to develop and deliver the most advanced solutions for our
customers and partners."

"BBN tapped Sakhr Software USA to participate in DARPA's GALE project, because
we believe that Sakhr has one of the most advanced Arabic NLP technologies,"
remarked Dr. John Makhoul, chief scientist, BBN Technologies. "Sakhr's Arabic
expertise has been important in helping BBN push the state of the art and
achieve the highest accuracy levels for automatic translation from Arabic to
English year after year. We are looking forward to what ground-breaking advances
Sakhr will bring to our team in the future."

In 2008, Sakhr Software USA and Dial Directions partnered together to develop
language application technology for mobile, cloud-computing environments. The
companies collaborated to develop a first of its kind open speech-to-speech
mobile translation application for the U.S. government and business customers.
The solution enables English and Arabic speakers to speak their native language,
hear the audio translation, and read the text translation - all with an iPhone
or Blackberry.

"I`ve seen Sakhr`s speech to speech mobile translator on the iPhone in action,
and it could be a game-changer," said Hythem El-Nazer, senior vice president,
Boston-based TA Associates, a global, leading private equity investor in
technology, media, and telecommunications. "Instant, open speech translation on
a mobile phone hasn`t been done before now, because it`s simply really hard to
do. The accuracy of Sakhr`s NLP combined with Dial Directions` mobile technology
creates a new paradigm for speech to speech translation."

"We built a strong working relationship with Sakhr while jointly developing the
mobile speech to speech translation product," said Adeeb Shanaa, chief executive
officer, Dial Directions. "Through the process it became very clear to us that
Sakhr is uniquely positioned to meet growing worldwide market demand for Arabic
language. We are proud to now be part of Sakhr, and look forward to continue
delivering groundbreaking technology to solve real-world problems."

All Dial Directions employees have joined Sakhr. The combined company has 200
employees, and will be led by Mr. Shanaa as chief executive officer. Fahad Al
Sharekh, Sakhr`s previous chief executive, has become Chairman and remains
actively involved in developing strategic partnerships for the company. Sakhr`s
management team will be based in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, with an
offshore development office in the Middle East. Financial terms of the deal were
not disclosed.

Demo Video
-- http://www.sakhrusa.com/demo/speech_to_speech

iPhone Photos
-- http://www.sakhrusa.com/images/iPhone-S2S-Screenshots-EtoA-highres.png
-- http://www.sakhrusa.com/images/iPhone-S2S-Screenshots-AtoE-highres.png

About Sakhr Software Company

Sakhr Software connects the English and Arabic speaking worlds through its
advanced speech and language technologies. For nearly two decades, Sakhr has
pioneered, led, and delivered the most advanced and comprehensive suite of
Arabic natural language processing solutions that work. Ranked #1 in accuracy
and performance by the U.S. government, Sakhr is used by hundreds of
organizations to process any type of Arabic content communicated in any
situation - from deciphering volumes of Arabic manuscripts to enabling live
communication between English and Arabic speakers with speech to speech mobile
translation. For more information, visit: www.sakhr.com.

About Dial Directions

Dial Directions, a private company located in the San Francisco Bay Area,
provides the leading platform for voice-activated entry powered by innovation in
speech recognition and voice user interface. The Dial Directions platform
enables industry partners to expand their mobile services with a voice-activated
interface, including 411/directory assistance providers, carriers, mobile
applications and devices, and navigation solutions. Dial Directions also
provides the first free nationwide phone service for driving directions,
1-DIRECTIONS (1-347-328-4667). In any U.S. city, mobile phone callers can say
their start & destination address; and receive turn by turn directions by text
message. Dial Directions is also recognized as the first company to launch
voice-entry applications on the iPhone App Store. For more information, visit:
www.dialdirections.com.

Atomic PR
Michelle Sabolich, +1-415-402-0230
michelle.sabolich@atomicpr.com
or
Tuyen Ho, +1-510-868-2924
tuyen@sakhr.us

Copyright Business Wire 2009