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TuVox Acquires NetByTel Speech Applications and Hosted Business Customers; Acquisition Significantly Grows Market Presence; Expands Application Offerings for TuVox CustomersCUPERTINO, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 29, 2005 -- TuVox, the leader in enterprise speech applications, announced today the acquisition of NetByTel's hosted speech application business. NetByTel is known for award winning speech recognition solutions for call centers available as a managed service. This acquisition strengthens TuVox's position in the speech application market by expanding the number of TuVox customers to over 50 and accelerating the company's growth and expertise in new vertical markets such as retail and financial services. Acquiring NetByTel's business will expedite TuVox's strategy to provide customers with superior speech applications in both hosted and premise-based deployments. The TuVox product line now includes over 40 speech applications in use globally and expands the TuVox customer base with over 20 new companies, including Office Depot, H&R Block, Shell, Wal-mart, ABN-Amro, and 1-800-Flowers. "In our evaluation of over 60 companies as potential growth opportunities, NetByTel rose to the top of the list," said Larry Miller, president and CEO, TuVox. "We were very impressed with the NetByTel applications, team and satisfied customers. As a result of the acquisition, TuVox gains additional voice self-service applications to benefit new and existing customers as well as expands its market position." "The TuVox acquisition of NetByTel customers and applications reflects continued consolidation within the voice self-service market," said Art Schoeller, senior analyst at Yankee Group. "The strongest players in the speech market will continue to grow through aggressive expansion and partnership strategies." The transaction is expected to close by September 30, 2005. NetByTel maintains its core software after the transaction and will focus on enabling service providers to bring speech applications to market. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. About TuVox TuVox is the leading provider of enterprise speech applications. TuVox speech applications achieve some of the industry's highest levels of caller adoption and call automation. Based on patented natural language technology, TuVox speech applications are highly conversational and provide a personalized and efficient caller experience. TuVox speech applications automate virtually any type of call, including natural language call routing, self-service transactions and product support. TuVox combines built-in speech application best practices with award winning lifecycle management software to make voice automation so cost-effective that any enterprise can deploy and maintain it. Compared with typical "custom applications," TuVox provides a superior ROI and ownership experience. TuVox customers include companies such as Activision, AvMed, MCI, Netflix, Oriental Trading Company, TiVo, TV Guide and the United States Postal Service. TuVox and Smartgen are trademarks of TuVox Incorporated. All other company or product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. |
