San Jose and Tokyo - June 8, 2001 --- Lucida, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based start-up company created as part of a Fujitsu program to cultivate venture "spin-out" companies, today announced that it will develop and market a new breed of unified, carrier-grade Telecom Business Management solutions for telecommunications service providers worldwide. Lucida is targeting the $40 billion global market for telecommunications OSS software - a market predicted by Yankee Group to grow to $58 billion by 2004. The company will develop products for service providers that require more robust, comprehensive solutions for managing network and business resources.
"We founded Lucida to capitalize on a distinct opportunity," said Yasufumi Toyoshima, president and CEO of Lucida. "Current OSS applications do not adequately meet the demanding needs of today's telecom service providers. Network, service and customer data often reside in 'silo' solutions from different vendors, few of which ever work together successfully. No one has achieved effective integration - creating a management headache and a loss of service agility."
Lucida, which was formally established last November and is now ramping up full-fledged operations, was created as part of Fujitsu Limited's Spin-Out Program. An extension of corporate venturing efforts begun in 1994, Fujitsu's Spin-Out Program seeks to foster and nurture the seeds of outstanding new businesses from operational units within the company in close collaboration with external resources. To date, there have been four such new company spin-outs from Fujitsu, with Lucida being the first outside Japan. Fujitsu invested initial seed capital in Lucida. As an independent company, Lucida will further diversify its capital structure with venture and strategic investment to meet anticipated customer demand.
"We realize that certain dynamic markets require the speed and agility of a smaller, highly focused company to successfully address customer needs," said Takashi Moriya, general manager of Corporate Planning and Business Development for Fujitsu Limited. "Lucida is an excellent example of a company with the technology, vision, and determination to exploit this market opportunity, and we are proud to have them as one of our spin-out graduates."
Lucida was formed from part of Fujitsu's telecommunications software development team, led by Yasufumi Toyoshima and other outside experienced industry executives. Mr. Toyoshima has nearly 30 years of telecommunications industry and management experience, and his team contributed to many innovations in the Network Management Software (NMS) arena, including the industry's first Windows-based provisioning system, the first Unix-based multi-technology NMS, and the first CORBA-based integrated NMS. The technical team at Lucida has extensive experience in developing telecom software for network elements, including DWDM, SDH/SONET, access systems, 3G, and routers. The company's board of directors includes Dr. Ray Chen, chairman of RayTron Group and a former congressman of the Republic of Taiwan, and Kamran Hasan, president of Cresnet and former senior manager at Concert.
Lucida will garner revenue from software licensing fees and related services. The company currently has 30 employees in the U.S., plus an offshore development partner in China that it is leveraging to rapidly bring its products to market in a cost-effective manner. Lucida Insight(TM) applications will be localized, with initial releases in English, Chinese, and Japanese. The company is also establishing local customer support offices worldwide, including in the U.S., China, Japan and Europe, capitalizing on the extensive global experience of the Lucida team.
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About Lucida
Silicon Valley-based Lucida, Inc. is developing Lucida Insight(TM), a new breed of comprehensive Telecom Business Management Solutions that offers service providers next-generation OSS software for today's rapidly changing market.
Internet: http://www.lucidainc.com/
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of Internet-focused information technology solutions for the global marketplace. Its pace-setting technologies, best-in-class computing and telecommunications platforms, and worldwide corps of systems and services experts make it uniquely positioned to unleash the infinite possibilities of the Internet to help its customers succeed. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 5.48 trillion yen for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001.
Internet: http://www.fujitsu.com/
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