Lexar Media and Olympus sign Worldwide supply and license agreement

Digital media manufacturer Lexar Media and digital camera maker Olympus Optical today announced a significant expansion of their relationship with the signing of a new OEM and technology licensing agreement.
Under the new agreement, Lexar Media will now be offering xD-Picture Cards in Lexar packaging through many of its 37,000 worldwide retail outlets. Lexar Media has also agreed to license its patents to Olympus for the xD-Picture Cards and host devices sold to Olympus' retail customers or bundled with Olympus cameras. Lexar Media has been selling Olympus xD-Picture Cards since 2002 in capacities of 16Mb, 32Mb, 64Mb and 128Mb, and, more recently, 256Mb.
"We are thrilled to expand upon our extensive past collaboration with Olympus which has been a long-time investor in Lexar Media," said Eric Stang, Lexar Media's chairman and CEO. "The xD-Picture Card has proven extremely popular with consumers and we are pleased to bring our brand strength and worldwide distribution to this emerging format. Since 1999, Olympus and Lexar Media have had a strategic alliance that has included joint development, sales, and marketing of flash products with Olympus cameras in certain retail markets internationally. We believe this new agreement will continue to allow Lexar to offer a single solution to all of a customer's memory card needs."

"Lexar Media has been a long and valued partner of Olympus," said Hiroshi Komiya, Olympus Director and Group President, Imaging Systems Group. "We have always recognized the value of Lexar's technology and look forward to this new dimension of our relationship."

Lexar Media and Olympus also agreed to future joint technology development.
Lexar Media's current offering of digital media includes xD-Picture Card, CompactFlash Type I/II, Memory Stick - including Memory Stick Select and Memory Stick PRO, Secure Digital Card, MultiMediaCard and Smart Media. Lexar Media is the only company to that currently provides all popular memory formats to its distributors and customers.