THOMSON multimedia's Board Of Directors Approves The Acceleration Of Its Development Strategy

The Group Is Set To Become A Leader In Consumer Entertainment Products And Interactive Services

19-Jun-00

The THOMSON multimedia board of directors met in New York on June 8, 2000, under the chairmanship of Thierry Breton, to approve the group's overall strategy and development plans. THOMSON multimedia's strategy is to leverage the group's strengths to become the leading platforms/interactive services company, focusing on consumer entertainment products. The implementation of this strategy will first require pursuing the development of the group's market positions and brands in finished consumer products. The group also intends to expand its digital product line and its geographic coverage. In addition, the group will continue to pursue improvements in terms of operational performance, product innovation and supply chain to reach best-in-class levels. As products become increasingly connected and interactive, and with the growing penetration of broadband technologies, THOMSON multimedia has a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of services for the consumer mass market, by leveraging its market shares, particularly in the United States, and its installed base, increased by the more than 50 million products sold every year under its brands. Navigation and search services, interactive and personalized services, and dedicated services for television are the three pillars of the group's new media services strategy. THOMSON multimedia intends to launch a number of new media services, in addition to EPG/IPGs (partnering with Gemstar), interactive services with TAK (in partnership with Microsoft), or personalized television integrating a hard drive such as the recent announcement between THOMSON multimedia, DIRECTV and Microsoft. In order to provide access to new and varied consumer services and to receive a share of recurring revenues generated by such services, the group also intends to incorporate technologies or components of other interactive services operators in its consumer products. THOMSON multimedia will further develop its upstream businesses, which contribute strongly to the group's operating result and cash flow. THOMSON multimedia has at its disposal two world-class activities - displays (tubes, plasma) and optical pick-ups. The group also plans to develop other activities where it will lead in innovation and be able to focus more on professional activities serving a more diversified client base (broadcasters, network operators, content providers, etc.). An illustration of the group's intentions in this area is its formation of a joint-venture announced yesterday, which will be a world-leader in interactive multimedia networks, with Alcatel. THOMSON multimedia also has a major commitment to intellectual property licensing. In addition to building its patent portfolio in digital technologies, the group intends to put its licensing management expertise at the service of partners and third parties. This ambitious strategy will be implemented aggressively in upcoming months and require additional resources. With these resources, the group will be able to successfully carry out the repositioning strategy it launched three years ago, and establish its position as a preeminent leader in interactive television and consumer entertainment products and services in the United States and in Europe. About THOMSON multimediaWith sales of 6.7 billion Euros (U.S. $6.5 billion) in 1999 and more than 50,000 employees in more than 30 countries, THOMSON multimedia (Paris Sicovam: 18453) (NYSE: TMS), is the world's fourth largest producer of consumer electronics. The group has four principal activities: Displays and Components, Consumer Products, New Media Services, and Patents and Licensing. THOMSON multimedia engineers, manufactures, and markets display components and consumer products such as televisions, VCRs, audio systems, digital decoders, DVD players and professional video equipment under the popular RCA and THOMSON brand names. THOMSON multimedia is the parent company of the U.S.-based Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc. For more information visit http://www.thomson-multimedia.com. Source: THOMSON multimedia

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