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General Magic and SpeechWorks Plan New Voice Partnership; Companies to Join Forces to Market and Sell End-to-End Voice Solutions
9/12/00 6:10 AM ET
SUNNYVALE, Calif. and BOSTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12,
2000--General Magic, Inc. (Nasdaq:GMGC), a leading voice application
service provider, and SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq:SPWX),
the U.S. market leader in the telephony-based speech technology
industry(1), today announced plans to jointly develop and host
innovative voice solutions for enterprise, telecommunications and
Internet companies. The companies have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI)
that leverages each company's respective strengths in the voice
technology market: General Magic's expertise in designing and hosting
sophisticated voice applications built on their VoiceXML-based
magicTalk(TM) platform, and SpeechWorks' expertise in speech
recognition, Text-to-Speech and VoiceXML technologies, and its
strength in creating and deploying advanced speech applications.
"With the rapid growth in the demand for state-of-the-art,
speech-activated services, we're always looking to partner with
companies that have proven development and hosting expertise and
experience -- General Magic has plenty of both," said Stuart R.
Patterson, CEO, SpeechWorks. "General Magic will be able to benefit
from our core technology in recognition and Text-to-Speech, while we
will be able to offer our customers another superior deployment
option. Together, we will also accelerate the adoption of the VoiceXML
standard and support its evolution to meet the needs of our
customers."
General Magic plans to offer its customers SpeechWorks(R) speech
technologies, including its newly acquired advanced Text-to-Speech
engine from AT (see related SpeechWorks press release June 13,
2000), as part of its magicTalk and Voice-XML-based voice solutions.
The magicTalk platform enables rapid design, development and hosting
of applications that deliver voice access to information, web content
and services. SpeechWorks plans to offer its customers a hosted voice
solution through General Magic. The companies plan to jointly market
and sell this combined product offering.
"SpeechWorks offers unique value in the speech marketplace from a
technology, programs and services perspective," said Steve Markman,
chairman, CEO and president of General Magic. "We are excited to be
aligned with SpeechWorks and are impressed with the Company's
undisputed commitment to customer service and excellence in deploying
large scale speech systems. This partnership is a classic case where
one-plus-one equals three."
Further, General Magic is participating in SpeechWorks'
SpeechMedia Alliance (see related SpeechWorks release March 14, 2000)
activities and Bill Byrne, Manager of Speech Language at General
Magic, is speaking at Conversations 2000, SpeechWorks' annual user
conference September 17-20 at the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Nigel,
California.
About General Magic
General Magic is a voice application service provider dedicated to
delivering customized voice applications, hosting, and professional
services to leading telecommunications, enterprise and Internet
companies. With its award-winning VoiceXML-based magicTalk
communications platform and years of experience, General Magic offers
the premier voice user interface that combines language, personality,
and logic, creating a natural conversation between people and
information. General Magic creates value for its customers by building
voice solutions that strengthen customer relations, deliver
value-added services, and provide access to content anytime, anywhere.
General Magic is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For
additional information about General Magic, visit the company's web
site at generalmagic.com.
About SpeechWorks
Organizations worldwide rely on SpeechWorks (Nasdaq:SPWX) to
delight their callers and provide them with a new level of service
over the phone. Complementing the self-service model of e-business,
SpeechWorks(R) speech recognition solutions, including the
revolutionary SpeechSite(TM) product, let customers direct their
calls, obtain information and complete transactions automatically,
simply by speaking naturally over any phone, anytime.
SpeechWorks customers include some of the world's most
sophisticated customer service innovators such as America Online,
Amtrak, Continental Airlines, E*Trade, FedEx, Fidelity Investments
Institutional Brokerage Group, MapQuest.com, Quack.com and United
Airlines. The Company offers the SpeechWorks Here(TM) Guarantee, the
industry's only customer results program with a money-back guarantee.
SpeechWorks strategic partners include leading corporations such as
AT, Dialogic, an Intel company, InterVoice-Brite and Net2Phone.
Early investors included Citigroup's e-Citi Unit, GE Equity, Intel
Corporation, The Intel64 Fund, MCI WorldCom Venture Fund and Reuters.
SpeechWorks is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and has
offices around the world. To experience the power of SpeechWorks, call
1.888.SAY.DEMO. For additional information, call 617/428-4444 or visit
speechworks.com.
General Magic notes that the forward-looking statements in this
press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause industry trends, or actual results, performance
or achievement to be materially different from any future trends,
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these
statements. These include, among others, risks and uncertainties
concerning the adequacy of the Company's financial resources to
execute its business plan; market acceptance of the Company's
technologies and services; the Company's ability to attract, retain
and motivate key technical, marketing and management personnel; the
ability of the Company to establish and maintain relationships with
businesses that have high volume customer interactions, and to
establish alliances with companies that offer technology solutions for
such businesses; the challenges inherent in the development, delivery
and implementation of complex technologies; the ability of the
Company's third party technology partners to timely develop, license
or support technology necessary to the Company's services; and the
Company's ability to respond to competitive developments. These and
other risks and uncertainties are detailed in General Magic's
Registration Statement on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on August 14, 2000.
Notes to Editors: General Magic and magicTalk are trademarks of
General Magic, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions
SpeechWorks, SpeechWorks Here and SpeechSite are trademarks or
registered trademarks of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United
States and other countries.
(1) Based on Frost and Sullivan's U.S. "Telephony-based Speech
Technology Software Market 2000" report. |
