The association will assist Protel in building corporate and product brand awareness and market acceptance across all product lines. The first half of this financial year has seen Protel continue to actively and aggressively pursue its acquisition program. This acquisition provided Protel with CAM technology, which is highly complementary to Protel's existing product lines. The successful acquisition of the Ukrain-based Dream Company in December 2000 provides Protel with valuable software development technology and tools. The skill and expertise of the four software engineers who have since joined Protel following the acquisition will significantly contribute to our integration platform development group.
Brand is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter.
A major service pack for Protel 99 SE has already been released in Jan 2001, providing a number of new features and enhancements to further strengthen the position and appeal of this highly successful product. The company has continued to achieve strong performance early in 2001. Industry data continues to forecast excellent growth rates for the EDA industry. Protel software is used for electronic design and development across many industries including telecommunications, defence, medicine, science, and consumer electronics. Protel was founded by Nick Martin in 1985 and by 1991 the Company had firmly established itself as a key player in the EDA industry with the release of the world's first Microsoft Windows based EDA tool.