Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV has paid $6.5m for a start-up established by former employees to enhance its own expertise in applications development. It is acquiring Flanders Dialogue Company (FDC), a Ypres, Belgium-based company that develops and implements computer telephony applications.
FDC has developed know-how in a series of vertical markets such as banking, travel, recruitment and stock quotes. While L&H, also from Ypres, has powerful technological credentials, the 14-strong staff of FDC have built up the kind of skills in application development that it lacks. L&H said that, following the acquisition, it can offer a one-stop access to a wide range of telephony solutions in multiple languages.
L&H is looking to attack vertical markets with re-usable applications that are easy to implement and can be rapidly adapted for each customer. It has encouraged, and invested in, a wide range of companies developing applications based on its speech engines, and the FDC deal shows that it has no inhibitions about taking over companies that can help its overall development efforts.
