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ANOTO FORMS JOINT VENTURE WITH
HITACHI MAXELL AND TAKES OVER
DIGITAL PEN PRODUCTION

Anoto and Hitachi Maxell Ltd. announce they will form a joint venture company for the Japanese market and transfer the ownership of
Hitachi Maxell’s digital pens to Anoto. According to the contract, Anoto takes over full ownership, including production, of the Maxell digital pen. The Maxell digital pen is based on Anoto´s technology and intellectual property rights.

The new joint venture, Anoto-Maxell K.K., will handle sales and distribution of digital pens on the Japanese market and selected markets in Asia. All other markets will be served through the organisations in Lund, Sweden or Boston, US. Anoto-Maxell K.K. will be owned 19.9 % by Hitachi Maxell and 80.1 % by Anoto and will be fully operational on July 1, 2008. At the same time, the ownership of the Hitachi Maxell digital pen will be transferred. The joint venture further strengthens Hitachi Maxell’s and Anoto’s cooperation in the area of digital pen and paper on the Japanese market as Hitachi Maxell personnel with digital pen expertise will be transferred to the joint venture. This will add valuable expertise to Anoto who will continue to run the production of the digital pen as previously run by Hitachi Maxell. It will also enhance the opportunities to customize solutions.

With the agreement Anoto now controls the main part of the value chain and will significantly increase its possibilities to respond to customer demands and further shorten the time to customer.­

Since 2002, Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. in Japan has been working in close collaboration with Anoto in Lund, regarding the development of new digital pen products. Over the years Hitachi Maxell has developed two generations of pens that have been sold worldwide under the Maxell brand name. The developing of the third generation pen has just recently finished, Hitachi Maxell’s first consumer pen, and will be launched in this summer. In 2007 Hitachi Maxell set up production of an Anoto branded digital pen, taking the first step towards a closer collaboration which the new joint venture now further strengthens.

 

Anoto-Maxell K.K. will have its office in Tokyo and will employ approximately 12 people from both Hitachi Maxell Digital Pen Division and Anoto Nippon K.K. Other Hitachi Maxell personnel will work for Anoto AB (for a certain period of time) and its pen production and development.

“We are very pleased with the increased cooperation with Hitachi Maxell. This means that Anoto no longer is dependent on external parties for supplying digital pen products in the future. This allows us to take a further step in the value chain and enables an improved, increased focus on meeting the needs of our big, Japanese partners”, says Anders Norling, CEO of Anoto.

“Collaborating with Anoto AB, we could launch various new products.” said Masaru Kamemoto, General Manager of Hitachi Maxell Digital Pen Division. “We are pleased to be partnered with Anoto as we move into this expanding market and we believe this new formation will strengthen Anoto-Maxell for providing valuable digital pen solutions to Japanese customers.”

End.     
 

・For more information:
Anders Norling CEO                  Masahiro Takahashi
Anoto Group AB                        Hitachi Maxell Ltd.
+46-733-45-14-98                      +81-3-3515-8283

Anoto Group AB may be required to disclose the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for
publication at 09.00 am on June 9th, 2008.

Anoto Group AB
Anoto Group is the company behind and world leading in the unique technology for digital pen and paper, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwritten text into a digital format. Anoto operates through a global partner network that focuses on user-friendly forms solutions for efficient capture, transmission and storage of data within different business segments, e.g. healthcare, bank and finance, transport and logistics and education. The Anoto Group has around 110 employees, offices in Lund (head office), Boston and Tokyo. Among the major shareholders are Norden Technology A/S, Robur and SEB. The Anoto share is traded on the Small Cap list of the OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm under the ticker ANOT. For more information: www.anoto.com

MAXELL – OFFERING MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE FOR YOUR MEDIA
A technology and brand leader in premium data storage media products since 1960, Hitachi Maxell Ltd is a full-line manufacturer of digital and analogue media products for the consumer, data storage and broadcasts markets.  For more information, please visit www.maxell.eu