ANT Limited Harnesses Power of the Internet for OpenGlobe's New Breed of Multi-Media Home Entertainment Appliances

ANT's Fresco™ enables browsing capabilities for digital home entertainment devices jointly designed by OpenGlobe™ and major consumer electronic OEMs

Boston, Mass., 9 April 2001

ANT Limited (based in Cambridge, UK), a leading provider of embedded communication software for consumer electronics, Internet devices and eCommerce products, today announced that it has licensed its Fresco browser to OpenGlobe, Inc., to bring the power of the Internet into home entertainment appliances built on the OpenGlobe reference designs. Combining audio, video and Internet capabilities without the use of a PC, these appliances usher in a new era of convergence. For the first time, ANT's communication software is being used to enable product functionality, not only to surf the web but to actually facilitate the use of the digital services that the consumer product enables, all completely invisible to the consumer.

OpenGlobe, an Escient® Technologies, LLC, affiliate, and a premier convergence technology and innovative CE-Commerce™ company, recently announced partnerships with Compaq, Kenwood, and Thomson Multimedia (RCA) to develop home entertainment products based on the OpenGlobe technology designs. ANT Fresco is the browser technology licensed by OpenGlobe for use in each of these products.

According to Ryan Jones, Media and Entertainment Analyst, Yankee Group, "As bandwidth to the home increases, consumers are faced with more and more entertainment choices. The array of connected devices and Internet medias can get confusing. Therefore, consumers will look for entertainment products and software that permit a degree of content orchestration currently unavailable on regular PC browsers."

According to Bernie Sepaniak, President and CEO of OpenGlobe, "We are leading the market for innovative new convergence technologies. ANT's Fresco browser blends well with our core technologies and services and helps us to turn our customers' visions of Internet-based home entertainment systems into reality, by delivering a superior product to their consumers."

All of the OpenGlobe-powered products are designed to create, manage and utilize digital media and easily integrate into home entertainment systems and home networks. In addition, all of OpenGlobe's reference product designs deliver services that naturally complement the entertainment experience, and offer a unique array of CE-Commerce services including access to digital media related information on the consumer's music collection as well as an easy way to manage all their media. It also offers the ability to securely purchase music, DVDs, and related items online and the ability to centralize the home digital entertainment experience in a more relaxing environment NOT in front of a PC.

According to Simon Woodward, ANT CEO and president, "It has been exciting to collaborate with OpenGlobe on the development of a whole new category of home entertainment devices. We see this as another important testimony to our browser's versatility in providing Internet browsing capabilities while enabling the OEM customers to bring products to market quickly with their own branding. For the end user, it is the convenience and personal control over a variety of functions in one system that is cutting edge."

ANT Fresco is a highly functional, platform independent browser, specifically designed for Internet appliances and consumer electronics devices such as digital set-top boxes, Internet television, mobile phones, PDAs, games consoles, household appliances and in-vehicle information systems. It has a fully customizable user interface and requires minimal memory, making it ideal for the latest generation of consumer and Internet products, which have limited memory resources.

About ANT Software Limited

ANT plc (www.antplc.com) is a leading provider of digital TV client and consumer electronic software solutions. ANT's unique client solutions allow robust and consistent delivery of digital-media, user interfaces, interactive services and applications to the TV and portable media devices. ANT enables service providers to efficiently create and deploy successful solutions to the market that deliver high value and clear differentiation.

ANT's products are pre-integrated with many industry-leading solutions and are based upon open standards, enabling low-risk, cost-effective roll-out of services, while ensuring flexible client hardware choice with efficient bill of materials. ANT software has been extensively deployed by customers throughout the world including Chunghwa Telecom, Foxconn, France Telecom, Humax, LG/Nortel, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, SaskTel, Telecom Italia and Thomson.

ANT plc's shares are listed on AIM, a London Stock Exchange regulated market, under the ticker ANTP (Reuters: ANTP.L, Bloomberg: ANTP.LN).

About OpenGlobe

OpenGlobe, Inc., is a convergence technology company providing Internet-based home entertainment platforms and services to consumers through established consumer electronics and personal computer manufacturers. OpenGlobe tightly integrates the Internet, innovative media management, content, profiling/buying services and hardware technologies, extending the entertainment experience. Based in Indianapolis, the company will enable a wide array of entertainment products to become customer relationship tools, deliver end-to-end CE-Commerceä services, and combine digital media and Internet power - products and services that entertain the concept of simplicity™. For more information about OpenGlobe, visit www.openglobe.net.

Trademarks

ANT, the ANT logo, Galio, Fresco and PurePlay are all trademarks or registered trademarks of ANT Software Limited. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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