Brother and Franklin join forces: Brother products to gain Franklin's Bookman Slots; consumers...

SOMERSET, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 1995--Brother International Corp. and Franklin Electronic Publishers today announced their strategic alliance to market Franklin BOOKMAN(R) technology.

Set to hit the stores in early 1996, several new Brother products will feature BOOKMAN slots, giving

Consumers will be able to simply plug one of over thirty Franklin software cartridges into Brother products to intelligently access everything from bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference material, to bibles, sports, entertainment, and much, much more. This data will be displayed in easy to read, full-sized format, approximately 3.3 times larger than current BOOKMAN platforms.

"We are extremely excited about adding BOOKMAN reference capabilities to our products," said Dean F. Shulman, senior vice president, Brother International Corp. "The dozens of software options available with BOOKMAN cartridges provide users with a tremendous amount of new applications. It's one more way we've found to add versatility to our products and offer more value to our customers."

"As the first license of BOOKMAN technology, we chose to team up with Brother, a company that turns the latest technology into useful, affordable consumer products," states Morton E. David, Franklin Electronic Publishers' chairman and CEO. "This joint venture is a win-win partnership; Brother expands the functionality of its products, while Franklin expands BOOKMAN technology beyond Franklin-branded products to gain additional outlets for BOOKMAN cartridges."

BOOKMAN, a hand-held electronic book system with built-in reference title and cartridge slot for other books, was introduced at the January 1995 Consumer Electronics Show. To date, over 300,000 have been shipped, a figure expected to climb to nearly one million units in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996.

"This is just the beginning. We envision expanding our relationship with Franklin to encompass more cross-marketing opportunities. With similar customer targets, our companies have great potential for additional cooperative sales and marketing activities," added Shulman.

Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. is the world's largest publisher of electronic books. They have sold more than 10 million books including dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries, medical, legal and financial reference works, Bibles, encyclopedias and entertainment, educational and tutorial publications. Franklin's books are sold in more than 30,000 domestic retail outlets and catalogs, and are distributed worldwide. Franklin has sales and distribution subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Further details on which new Brother models will offer consumers increased flexibility with BOOKMAN slots will be announced in the near future.

With production from their Bartlett, Tenn. factory, Brother International Corp. is America's largest manufacturer of portable electronic typewriters and personal word processors. They also distribute a full line of sewing machines, automated office, industrial and home electronic products. In addition to its headquarters in Somerset, Brother has operations in Brazil, California, Canada, Chile, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

All registered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Milton Samuels Advertising Agency Inc.

Keith Klein/Jacqueline Long

212/532-5151