Company Begins Delivery of Fourth Generation Hand-Carried Ultrasound System Johns Hopkins Bayview Emergency Department Among the First
BOTHELL, WA, December 5, 2007 - Sonosite, Inc. (Nasdaq:SONO), the world leader in point-of-care, hand-carried ultrasound, today announced that it has begun worldwide shipments of the M-Turbo™ ultrasound system, its fourth generation product. The M-Turbo system packs 16-times more processing power than Sonosite's industry-leading MicroMaxx® system, delivering breakthrough image clarity across all exam types and seamless connectivity for digital image export in a rugged, hand-carried product weighing less than 8 pounds.
"The M-Turbo has it all," said William T. Hosek, MD, MBA, Director of Emergency Medicine Focused Ultrasound and Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore who is receiving the first hospital shipment. "I have been waiting a long time for a system with superior image quality, quick boot-up time and easy data transfer.
The M-Turbo system also has an extremely intuitive design, which gives the novice the ability to easily master the controls after just a brief time. While larger machines may provide good images, their long boot-up time and lack of maneuverability are a disincentive for use in a quick paced, busy ED. With the M-Turbo, by the time you get the gel on the probe, you€™re ready to roll." Sonosite has been demonstrating its M-Turbo system alongside Sonosite€™s radically new S Series„¢ ultrasound tools at leading clinical meetings in the US, Europe and Australasia in emergency medicine, anesthesia and critical care.
Customer deliveries of the S Series products are scheduled to begin later this month. "With the introduction of the M-Turbo system, we have again executed an on-time launch and delivery schedule for a completely new product platform, and strengthened our long-standing leadership position in the hand-carried ultrasound industry," said Kevin M. Goodwin, Sonosite President and CEO. "While still early, we have received very enthusiastic feedback from physicians who have evaluated the product, and it is our expectation that our fourth generation products will quickly become the standard for image quality, user simplicity and speed in point-of-care clinical settings."
About Sonosite Sonosite, Inc. (www.sonosite.com) is the innovator and world leader in hand-carried ultrasound. Headquartered near Seattle, the company is represented by ten subsidiaries and a global distribution network in over 90 countries. Sonosite€™s small, lightweight systems are expanding the use of ultrasound across the clinical spectrum by cost-effectively bringing high performance ultrasound to the point of patient care. The company employs over 600 people worldwide.
Forward-looking Information and the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995 Certain statements in this press release relating to the market acceptance of our products, possible future sales relating to expected orders, and our future financial position and operating results are "forward-looking statements" for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of our management at the time the statements are made and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements are not guaranties of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions. Factors that could affect the rate and extent of market acceptance of our products, the receipt of expected orders, and our financial performance include our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell our ultrasound systems, our ability to accurately forecast customer demand for our products, our ability to manufacture and ship our systems in a timely manner to meet customer demand, variability in quarterly results caused by the timing of large project orders from governmental or international entities and the seasonality of hospital purchasing patterns, timely receipts of regulatory approvals to market and sell our products, regulatory and reimbursement changes in various national health care markets, constraints in government and public health spending, the ability of our distribution partners and other sales channels such as the physician office sales force to market and sell our products, the impact of patent litigation, our ability to execute our acquisition strategy, the effect of transactions and activities associated with our issuance of senior convertible debt in July 2007 on the market price of our common stock, and as well as other factors contained in the Item 1A. "Risk Factors" section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated by our most recent quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution readers not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements that speak only as to the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
BOTHELL, WA, December 5, 2007 - Sonosite, Inc. (Nasdaq:SONO), the world leader in point-of-care, hand-carried ultrasound, today announced that it has begun worldwide shipments of the M-Turbo™ ultrasound system, its fourth generation product. The M-Turbo system packs 16-times more processing power than Sonosite's industry-leading MicroMaxx® system, delivering breakthrough image clarity across all exam types and seamless connectivity for digital image export in a rugged, hand-carried product weighing less than 8 pounds.
"The M-Turbo has it all," said William T. Hosek, MD, MBA, Director of Emergency Medicine Focused Ultrasound and Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore who is receiving the first hospital shipment. "I have been waiting a long time for a system with superior image quality, quick boot-up time and easy data transfer.
The M-Turbo system also has an extremely intuitive design, which gives the novice the ability to easily master the controls after just a brief time. While larger machines may provide good images, their long boot-up time and lack of maneuverability are a disincentive for use in a quick paced, busy ED. With the M-Turbo, by the time you get the gel on the probe, you€™re ready to roll." Sonosite has been demonstrating its M-Turbo system alongside Sonosite€™s radically new S Series„¢ ultrasound tools at leading clinical meetings in the US, Europe and Australasia in emergency medicine, anesthesia and critical care.
Customer deliveries of the S Series products are scheduled to begin later this month. "With the introduction of the M-Turbo system, we have again executed an on-time launch and delivery schedule for a completely new product platform, and strengthened our long-standing leadership position in the hand-carried ultrasound industry," said Kevin M. Goodwin, Sonosite President and CEO. "While still early, we have received very enthusiastic feedback from physicians who have evaluated the product, and it is our expectation that our fourth generation products will quickly become the standard for image quality, user simplicity and speed in point-of-care clinical settings."
About Sonosite Sonosite, Inc. (www.sonosite.com) is the innovator and world leader in hand-carried ultrasound. Headquartered near Seattle, the company is represented by ten subsidiaries and a global distribution network in over 90 countries. Sonosite€™s small, lightweight systems are expanding the use of ultrasound across the clinical spectrum by cost-effectively bringing high performance ultrasound to the point of patient care. The company employs over 600 people worldwide.
Forward-looking Information and the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995 Certain statements in this press release relating to the market acceptance of our products, possible future sales relating to expected orders, and our future financial position and operating results are "forward-looking statements" for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of our management at the time the statements are made and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements are not guaranties of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions. Factors that could affect the rate and extent of market acceptance of our products, the receipt of expected orders, and our financial performance include our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell our ultrasound systems, our ability to accurately forecast customer demand for our products, our ability to manufacture and ship our systems in a timely manner to meet customer demand, variability in quarterly results caused by the timing of large project orders from governmental or international entities and the seasonality of hospital purchasing patterns, timely receipts of regulatory approvals to market and sell our products, regulatory and reimbursement changes in various national health care markets, constraints in government and public health spending, the ability of our distribution partners and other sales channels such as the physician office sales force to market and sell our products, the impact of patent litigation, our ability to execute our acquisition strategy, the effect of transactions and activities associated with our issuance of senior convertible debt in July 2007 on the market price of our common stock, and as well as other factors contained in the Item 1A. "Risk Factors" section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated by our most recent quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution readers not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements that speak only as to the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.