NW_20001018_en_VASCO, a Deloitte & Touche "Fast 50" award winner
OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – October 18, 2000 – VASCO (NASDAQ & EASDAQ: VDSI; www.vasco.com), a global provider of enterprise-wide security solutions, has been named to Deloitte & Touche's prestigious "Fast 50" Program for Greater Chicagoland, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the Chicago area. Rankings are based on five-year revenue growth, from 1995-1999. The program is sponsored by Deloitte & Touche, in association with Kirkland and Ellis, Motorola Ventures, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. On October 17, 2000, Deloitte & Touche announced the ranked Greater Chicagoland Technology Fast 50 list. VASCO came in ranked at #15.
VASCO's President and CEO, Mario Houthooft, credits the explosive growth in the Internet, and the resulting high demand for effective e-business and e-commerce security, with the company's 324% revenue growth over the past five years. “We already have more than 500 corporations and government agencies worldwide as customers, including 150 of the world’s leading banks,” he explained. “Yet the global market for security remains largely untapped, since more than 90% of all corporations and government agencies are still not operating in a fully secure manner. We expect continued strong growth as more organizations move to protect their e-business initiatives.”
"In an era where technology companies come and go like shooting stars, making the Deloitte & Touche Greater Chicagoland Technology Fast 50 is a testament to a company's leadership and its ability to not only have the right solution for that moment in time, but also the vision that allows growth over five years,” said Tim McCarty, Partner-in-Charge, Midwest Practice, Tech.Comm Practice for Deloitte & Touche. “VASCO has proven that they have the right stuff to succeed and we at Deloitte & Touche salute its accomplishment."
To qualify for the Fast 50, companies must have had operating revenues of at least $50,000 in 1995 and $1,000,000 in 1999, must be a public or private company headquartered in Greater Chicagoland, and be a "technology company" defined as a company that produces technology, manufactures a technology product, or devotes a high percentage of effort to research and development of technology.
Winners of the 21 regional Fast 50 programs in the United States are automatically entered in the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500 program, which ranks the nation's top 500 fastest growing technology companies. For more information on the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 or Fast 500 programs, visit www.fast500.com.
About VASCO
VASCO secures the enterprise from the mainframe to the Internet with infrastructure solutions that enable secure e-business and e-commerce, protect sensitive information, and safeguard the identity of users. The company’s family of Digipass™, VACMAN®, and SnareWorks™ products offers end-to-end security through true Single Sign-On, access control and advanced entitlements, web portal security, strong user authentication, and PKI enablement, while sharply reducing the time and effort required to deploy and manage security. VASCO’s customers include hundreds of financial institutions, blue-chip corporations, and government agencies in more than 50 countries, among them John Hancock, ABN AMRO Bank, Shell, 3M, Ericsson, Rabobank, SEB, First Union, Liberty Mutual, Cable and Wireless, Nokia, DaimlerChrysler, Volvo, US Department of Defense, European Commission, US Coast Guard, University of Groningen, and Duke University. VASCO’s partners include Check Point Software Technologies, Computer Associates, Intel, Lernout & Hauspie, Novell, and Ubizen. More information is available at www.vasco.com.
About Deloitte & Touche
Deloitte & Touche, one of the nation's leading professional services firms, provides assurance and advisory, tax, and management consulting services through 30,000 people in more than 100 U.S. cities. The firm's technology and communications practice in the Midwest region focuses on developing and delivering superior customer service and products to rapidly changing technology and communications markets. Deloitte & Touche is part of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a global leader in professional services with more that 90,000 people in over 130 countries. Deloitte & Touche refers to Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deloitte Consulting LLC, and related entities. For additional information, please visit Deloitte & Touche's web site at www.us.deloitte.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Statements made in this news release that relate to future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements. Any statement containing words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” and similar words, is forward-looking, and these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations. Consequently, actual results could differ materially from the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements.
Reference is made to the Company’s public filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for further information regarding the Company and its operations.
For more information please contact:
Americas:
Media: Kerry Roche, Bridgeman Communications, +1 617 742 7270, [email protected]
Investor Relations: Todd Fromer, KCSA Public Relations Worldwide, +1 212 682 6300, [email protected]
VASCO: Mike Lange, +1 630 932 8844, [email protected]
Europe/Asia:
Media (Benelux): Bob Pieters, Anthonissen & Associates, +32 3 286 7777, [email protected]
Media (Europe/Asia): Sven Kersten, HBI, +49 89 99 38 87 33, [email protected]
Investor Relations: Annemieke Blondeel, LBConsult, +44 208 308 7080, [email protected]
VASCO: Ariane Bosmans, +32 2 456 9810, [email protected]