Microsoft Announces Plans To Acquire TellMe

14th March 2007

Microsoft has just confirmed, via an official press release, plans to buy TellMe, the company that powers nearly 40% of US directory assistance calls. The deal is supposed to be worth $800 Million.

TellMe is a very popular service in the USA. Users call the toll-free number from their mobile or landline phones and simply speak the city, state and business they are looking for, and hear the results. TellMe uses open platform VoiceXML to enable speech based queery processing and response.

Mobile capabilities currently in beta seem to be what attracted Microsoft to TellMe. The two mobile products currently on TellMe’s beta site allow mobile users to say what they want and see the results on the mobile screen (voice activated search) and send & receive search queries via SMS.

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Search Daily News » Google Voice Local Search Live : 10 April 2007 at 6:37 pm

[...] There has been some speculation about this, and rumours picked up when Microsoft announced plans to acquire TellMe. Now Google have proved the rumour mills right by going ahead and launching Google Voice Local search. [...]
Microsoft Acquires Mobile Advertising Firm ScreenTonic | Search Daily News : 8 May 2007 at 5:54 pm

[...] ScreenTonic will be Microsoft’s second high-profile acquisition in the mobile field. Earlier this year they announced plans to acquire TellMe, a popular US directory service. Whether this activity and growth leads up to Microsoft’s dominance of the mobile search space remains to be seen. [...]

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