BSD.L Regulatory News (BSD)

16 May 2007 10:19

Emblaze Ltd16 May 2007 Emblaze Ltd (LSE: BLZ) ("Emblaze" or the "Group") Update on the Group's Mobile Unit Management expects continuous improvement in group results despite current events Ra'anana, Israel, 16 May 2007: As stated at the time of the Group's 2006results, Emblaze Mobile has been adversely affected by a slowdown in trading,principally due to the impact of the industry wide withholding of VAT reclaimsby the UK HMRC authorities (Her Majesty Revenue & Customs). HMRC's actions have caused significant loss of working capital that directlydrove the trading and distribution business of Emblaze Mobile into cash burn andgrowing losses, thus rendering it economically impossible to continue to operatethe business at its current levels. The Group has concluded that a resolution ofthis issue is unlikely to be achieved in the near future. Hence, the Boardintends to scale down the trading and distribution business of Emblaze Mobile.As a result, Laurence Alexander, head of Emblaze Mobile, will be leaving thecompany towards the end of this month. Despite these steps, the Group expects tocontinue to improve its business performance in 2007. Guy Bernstein, CEO of Emblaze, said: "As I said at the time of the full yearresults we are not happy about the HMRC issues, and the fact that we areconsidering scaling down the business is not a reflection on Laurence or histeam who have worked tirelessly for us. We wish to thank Laurence and wish himwell in the future. "Going forward, the Group will continue to focus its skills and talents togenerate sustainable growing profits and value for shareholders. We have astrong portfolio of mature technology businesses which are a fine base forfuture success and which we intend to grow globally. Despite the unfortunatesituation with our Mobile business, the Group will continue its improvement andexpansion this year." Enquiries: Emblaze Ltd Hadas Gazit, Hagit Gal +972 9 7699302/ 339 Corfin Communications (UK) Harry Chathli, Neil Thapar +44 (0)20 7929 8989 Eisenberg-Eliash LTD., Investorrelations & Public relations (Israel) Amir Eisenberg +972 3 7538828 / +972 52 8260285 Note to Editors About Emblaze Emblaze Ltd is a group of companies sharing a common mission to provide telecomoperators with technologies, products and solutions for next generationservices: Emblaze Mobile, a new breed in handsets design and manufacturing;ZONE-IP a provider of IP technologies and owner of Emblaze VCON, a leadingprovider of wireless video communications technologies and conferencingsolutions for operators and enterprise markets over IP networks; OrcaInteractive (LSE: ORCA), provider of Interactive Television IPTV middleware forVideo On Demand (VOD) and broadcast services, aimed at Telecom, cable and xDSLoperators; emoze, a free global Push Email service for mobile devices that willpush send your Emails and PIM data to you anywhere and to any device; FormulaSystems Ltd (NASDAQ:FORTY), is a global solutions provider of technology,software and IT solutions for telecommunications companies, operators and a widerange of sectors. The Formula Systems companies are trading on NASAQ: MagicSoftware Enterprises (MGIC), Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (SPNS),BluePhoenix Solutions (BPHX). The following companies are dually trading also onthe Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE): Formula Systems, Magic, Sapiens, BluePhoenixand Matrix and; Visual Defence (LSE: VDI), a provider of wireless and IP videosolutions for military and homeland security markets; Emblaze Group is traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BLZ) since 1996.www.Emblaze.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange