Wisconsin Investment Board Continues as ScanSoft's Largest Institutional Shareholder

Madison, Wisc. (September 19, 2002) - Addressing concerns created by untrue speculation, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) has announced that it continues to be the largest institutional shareholder in ScanSoft, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: SSFT) stock.

"It is unfortunate that we must respond to false rumors and hearsay, but we felt it critical to correct the unfounded rumors and speculation that are circulating in the marketplace about our position as a holder of ScanSoft stock," said John Nelson, SWIB's Portfolio Manager of Small Company Stocks. "We continue to believe in the investment merits of this company and have no current intent to sell that position."

"SWIB does not loan out its stock in ScanSoft because that might enable and/or encourage short selling in the stock," Nelson added.

Based on the most recent 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as of June 30, 2002, SWIB owned 11.735 million shares of ScanSoft's common stock, or approximately 18.31 percent of the shares outstanding. As of September 19, SWIB continues to hold the 11.735 million shares.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) is the ninth largest public pension fund in the United States and the 19th largest public or private pension fund in the world. The Investment Board is responsible for investing $52 billion in assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System, the pension fund for more than 490,000 public employees. SWIB also invests several other state funds and has a total of $59 billion in assets under management.

ScanSoft is a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service.

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