[asterisk-users] FW: Microsoft buys Tellme

[Dean Collins]

http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/microsoft-buys-tellme.html 

 

I thought I would email this post I made on my blog from yesterday as a
way of stimulating discussion on this. 

 

It looks like the Asterisk community is no closer to getting a Pre-Paid
'Offboard Speech Recognition Processing' SIP gateway than ever. I've
left the http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Tellme page up for
archival purposes but basically we still have no 'low value' pre-paid
service for the little people.

 

Regards,

Dean Collins
Cognation Pty Ltd
dean at cognation.net
+1-212-203-4357 Ph
+1-917-207-3420 Mb



________________________________

From: Dean Collins [mailto:dean at cognation.net] 
Sent: Friday, 16 March 2007 1:11 PM
To: Dean Collins
Subject: [Dean Collins] Microsoft buys Tellme

 


 


 


Microsoft buys Tellme 


Hmmm interesting day today. Basically Microsoft bought Tellme for $800
million dollars.

Long history between myself and Tellme;

So basically in April 2005 someone I knew from Australia went to work
for Tellme in CA. He called to talk to me about his new company and
eventually I was introduced to his boss, TellMe's CTO - Don Jackson.

I was explaining to Don about my involvement with the Asterisk community
and how Tellme could really benefit by getting involved.

What I was trying to suggest they set up was a speech recognition ASP
SIP gateway.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Tellme
<http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Tellme> 
or
http://www.Cognation.net/asterisk/tellme
<http://www.cognation.net/asterisk/tellme> 

The concept behind this is that there were 20,000 Asterisk servers
globally (now probably closer to 35,000), if Tell Me were able to set up
a SIP gateway that allowed "the little people" to do 'offboard speech
recognition processing' on a low value prepaid basis then there would be
sufficient volume to set up a special channel support team just for the
asterisk community and this whilst initially would require more support,
through code reuse and easy install sample conf files would be a
valuable market.

So long story short, this went back and forward for a while, nothing
came out of it until Tellme announced a joint venture with Skype
http://www.skype.com/partners/voice/
<http://www.skype.com/partners/voice/>  to do exactly what I was
proposing.

This was just plain dumb because although skype are set up to handle the
front end billing (this is one of the main issues with Tellme setting up
a SIP gateway) no real developer is going to be happy using a skype
channel for their Vxml application.

Of course they've basically made nothing out of it and the idea for a
sip gateway is still sitting there unrealised BUT... thems the breaks.
Besides they get to work for MS now and become zillionaires.

Oh and in case anyone out there wants to tell me there is no money to be
made in servicing "the little people" check out how many ITSP's exist in
just north america providing termination services
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers+Business+North
+America
<http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/VOIP+Service+Providers+Business+Nort
h+America>  the secret is automation from credit card processing to
minute allocation to processing allocation. Get that all sorted and your
done, application stickiness will ensure an ongoing revenue.



Articles linking to the news.
http://gigaom.com/2007/03/14/microsoft-buys-tellme/
<http://gigaom.com/2007/03/14/microsoft-buys-tellme/> 

Interesting chart in here showing the VC relationships (all told kicked
in $237M over 8 years to get this payoff)
http://vcratings.thedealblogs.com/2007/03/tellme_the_next_benchmark_and.
php
<http://vcratings.thedealblogs.com/2007/03/tellme_the_next_benchmark_and
.php> 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/14/microsoft_buys_tellme_networks/
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/14/microsoft_buys_tellme_networks/
> 


Cheers,
Dean 

posted by Dean Collins at 11:02 AM
<http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/microsoft-buys-tellme.html>
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