Voxeo Acquires VoiceObjects
Voxeo, a provider of standards-based voice application platforms and hosted services, today acquired VoiceObjects, a provider of self-service application development, unified communications, and analytics solutions.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Jonathan Taylor, Voxeo’s president and CEO, says the deal had been in the works for the last four months.
“We are very excited about this acquisition,” he adds. “It will be a big win for us.”
VoiceObjects is the second acquisition Voxeo completed in 2008, following the acquisition of Beijing-based Micromethod, a SIP-based communications and collaboration software provider, in August.
The acquisition of VoiceObjects brings to Voxeo a strong portfolio of advanced VoiceXML-based phone platforms and application features, including unified communications via voice, video, text, and the Web; large-scale replication; intelligent call personalization; and interaction reporting and analytics via the VoiceAnalyzer suite of products. The company also offers consulting, voice user interface design services, training, and technical support.
Taylor admits that the lack of a full-featured analytics package had been one of Voxeo’s weaknesses, but “now we are leapfrogging [the competition] and going ahead of the curve,” he says.
The deals also brings to Voxeo a number of high-profile clients, including Adobe, Citibank, Hershey, IKEA, Kellogg, Postbank, SAP, Swisscom, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Volkswagen. It also significantly increases Voxeo’s presence in Europe. VoiceObjects has its headquarters in San Mateo, Calif., but also maintains offices in Germany. "VoiceObjects’ German-based operation also accelerates our growing investment in the European market," Taylor says. “We’ve tripled the size of our European team with this acquisition,”
People, he says, “are the most valuable part of any acquisition, and there are great people at VoiceObjects. In the long run, our combined companies will be a great value to everyone because of the great people we already have in place and the great people we are adding in Germany with the acquisition."
The VoiceObjects team, Taylor says, will continue to be led by Michael Codini, who cofounded the company more than seven years ago and has served as its managing director and chief technology officer.
The combined company will continue to enhance the VoiceObjects platform and will launch several new VoiceObjects-based products and services in 2009. Plans already call for VoiceObjects to be available in extremely cost-effective on-demand and on-premises offerings bundled with Voxeo’s own Prophecy VoiceXML Platform, according to Taylor.
Voxeo will alsocontinue to openly and actively support VoiceObjects’ application deployment on multiple VoiceXML platforms, including those from Aspect Software, Avaya, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Intervoice, and Nortel.
“Essentially, we’ll be looking to keep the VoiceObjects platform the same,” he says. “They’ve got great people, great products, and a great fit into what we’re doing.”