The high-profile voice-to-text messaging company, SpinVox, is being offered for sale by its chairman amid reports that institutional investors have lost faith in the company. Analysts believe that the company could attract serious bids from Nokia, NSN, Alcatel Solutions, Ericsson and even RIM given the success SpinVox has achieved with major operators worldwide.
While the company has gained an enthusiastic following from many users, more recently it has become mired in controversy following accusations that the technology had been over-hyped together with rumours of financial mismanagement. Confidence in the company slipped again recently when it was revealed that SpinVox had been using call centres and not voice recognition tech to convert messages in an effort to improve accuracy.
Major investors have called for improved control as SpinVox executives requested more funds - albeit that the company has raised more than £100 million in a series of funding rounds, including emergency funding of £15m from shareholders at the end of July. SpinVox's most recently available accounts, for 2007, show a pre-tax loss of £30.2 million on revenues of £2 million.
The co-founder of SpinVox, Christina Domecq, has recently strenuously denied any plan to sell the company, insisting that it was not looking for a buyer. Regardless, the financial community is already spilling the beans with reports that Nuance Communications - a leading voice recognition developer, was interested in acquiring the firm, while SpinVox employees had placed their hopes on Cisco riding to their rescue, which now looks a faint hope.
For more on this story:
Mobile Today and Financial Times
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