Lernout & Hauspie

Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, or L&H, was a leading Belgium-based speech recognition technology company, founded by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, that went bankrupt in 2001. The company was based in Ypres, Flanders, in what was then called the Flanders Language Valley (mimicking the Silicon Valley). Lernout & Hauspie was founded in 1987 by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie. After a difficult start, it quickly grew, and, in 1995, it went public on the NASDAQ (LHSP), and was also quoted on the now-defunct Brussels-based EASDAQ exchange. Its headquarters were in Ieper, Belgium, and in Burlington, Massachusetts. At its peak, Lernout & Hauspie had a market capitalization of almost US$10 billion. Flanders played an important role in investing in...