Philips Electronics NV has finally won the support of more than 90% of shareholders for its $59m bid for Voice Control Systems Inc, a Dallas, Texas-based speech technology company. The bid was extended when holders of only 87.9% of the shares had accepted by the formal deadline, leaving Philips with the prospect of a two-month long legal process to complete the merger (CI No 3,682).
Now that acceptances have moved to 90.9%, a fast-track procedure comes into operation that will see Philips take control by the end of this month. With the acquisition of VCS, Philips claims it offers the widest range of speech technology products. VCS has software that can operate in 50 languages and has specialized in voice verification technology, which uses the unique characteristics of each person’s speech, in addition to a PIN number, to help secure access to sensitive information.
