HP grabs maker of voice portal software | CNET News.com
I think this is a really smart move by HP. Scott McGlashan, the CTO and co-founder of PipeBeach, is one of the two chairs of the W3C Voice Browser working group. Before this move, HP was generally not considered to be a significant player in the VoiceXML market.
HP’s existing OpenCall platform is targeted at telecom service providers. While they already had a VoiceXML browser suitable for use by service providers, PipeBeach gives them a better VoiceXML toolset and some desirable applications (e.g., email by phone and a voice portal) to immediately start selling through their Services group.
I think HP partners HeyAnita! and VoiceGenie have a lot to be concerned about by this move.
One mistake in the CNET article is that it talks about combining PipeBeach products with HP OpenCall speechWeb. SpeechWeb is PipeBeach’s product. Of course, the press release makes it sound like OpenCall speechWeb already exists, although it actually will be a product of the merger.