Larson-Davis - terminates licensing agreement with Lucent Technologies - Company Business and Marketing

Electronic News, Sept 21, 1998 by Chad Fasca, Dylan McGrath

Larson-Davis has terminated its 1997 technical information agreement and patent license agreement with Lucent Technologies. This agreement provided Larson-Davis with certain exclusive rights to patents and technology for the development of a particle analysis system. The termination agreement cancelled all financial obligations due to Lucent by Larson-Davis, including royalty payments of more than $2 million.

The first royalty payment of $125,000 was due to be paid Sept. 1, with another due March 1. The termination agreement also provided that Lucent would purchase the prototype model developed by LDII for $100,000. No extraordinary charge will be taken as a result of this termination. "Our decision to cancel the Lucent agreement was not made lightly," said COO Jeffrey Cohen. "A number of factors contributed to this decision including the current slowdown in a major potential market for this device -- the semiconductor market; the very aggressive minimum royalty payments; the technical performance of the Lucent prototype; and the costs and risks associated with bringing this technology to market."