Week in review: YouTube honeymoon over for Google

(continued from previous page)

Slacker's player and radio service is built around the company's own proprietary technology that takes advantage of unused commercial satellite signals to send data. The "personal radio" is based on the idea that a majority of music player owners don't make the time to organize or update their music collections (hence, the "slacker" moniker).

Behind Microsoft's Tellme deal
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it is buying privately held speech recognition maker Tellme Networks in a deal believed to be in the range of $800 million.

With the Tellme deal, Microsoft gains a company with deep expertise in speech recognition and the intersection of voice and data.

Although Tellme will become part of Microsoft's business software division led by its president, Jeff Raikes, Microsoft also plans to tap the technology to bolster its competition against Google, as well as others in the mobile sector.

Much of Tellme's recent work has focused on mobile devices. Raikes and Tellme CEO Mike McCue on Wednesday talked up fundamental changes that speech recognition could bring to the telephone, a device that has changed relatively little in decades.

In addition to directly operating a voice portal for consumers, Tellme's technology is used by large companies such as FedEx, American Airlines and American Express to power their automated telephone systems. Half of all directory assistance calls are made using Tellme's technology, meaning that one in three Americans use its technology each year, according to Raikes and McCue.

Microsoft could incorporate Tellme's technology in unifying business telephony and e-mail systems, or adding speech technology to existing software to bulking up its Live Search for mobile phones. The company said it will build a platform on which other developers will be able to build speech-based applications.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Tellme, which has 320 employees, is profitable and has raised more than $230 million through several rounds of venture capital, the last of which came in October 2000. It was seen as a potential target for an initial public offering last year, though it never ended up filing for a stock sale.

Microsoft said that it expects Tellme's executives and staff to join Microsoft following the deal's close and added that it plans to maintain Tellme's existing services.

CNET News.com also got the story on the unusual circumstances of the Tellme negotiations, which took place only a few hours before kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday. Although both companies had invested plenty in speech recognition, the market was heading in new directions and neither company had all the technology it needed. The deal wouldn't be finalized for another five weeks, but McCue left the meeting convinced that being part of Microsoft was a better option than trying to take his company public or linking up with another large company such as Google.

Also of note
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner announced Vuguru, an independent studio for the production and distribution of online video content...Cisco Systems revealed that it will acquire WebEx, a Web conferencing company, for $3.2 billion...The Department of Transportation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology put a moratorium on Vista platform computers connecting to its networks, citing a fear of compatibility problems and unexplored security issues as the main reasons...A California judge dismissed charges against former Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn in the HP spying scandal, while the three other HP defendants pleaded no contest to a count of fraudulent wire communications and got community service.

[doodr9]

I know google has a lot of money but..

Youtube is a sinking ship. Youtube is too big. It will have to move
further and further from copyright infringement. Once it does most
of it's users will go elsewhere.

hmm but what else to do with 1650 million dollars....

[oceanview_1]

$$$$ is the reason with VIACOM

when YouTube was a non entity there were no issues with anyone or anybody...now that Google owns YouTube and is loaded (so to speak)...it's
a big issue now...

just wait for the individuals to follow suit...

shame on viacom...

later...

[YankeePoodle]

YouTube is no Napster

YouTube will not face the same demise as Napster. There is lot of original content in YouTube from "Death Threat Dramas" to "Complete Comedy". So YouTube is the home of this huge reality shows. Once YouTube provides enough connectivity or quality where you can hook-up to you tube via TV (like IP TV way.. not connecting from your computer), its the future.

YouTube has too much original content than Napster ever had, and there is also change in attitude (a-bit) on the content industry, see their partnership with BitTorrent.

ViaCom is bitter over Google not making concessions, they want to use this law-suit as an arm-twisting tactics, nothing more. I would be the least surprised individual if there is a off-court settlement on this case.