Google buys Wavii for an estimated $30 million, reportedly outbidding Apple
Natural language processing startup Wavii confirmed on Friday that it has been acquired by Google, and some sources report that the search giant bought the startup from under Apple for more than $30 million.
Wavii confirmed the acquisition in on the company web page on Friday, noting that the Wavii service as it currently exists will be shut down. Wavii's team and technology, it is expected, will be integrated into Google's operations "in ways that may be useful to millions of people around the world," according to CEO Adrian Aoun.
Earlier reports had Wavii's technology being merged with Google's Knowledge Graph, a database of hundreds of millions of people, places, and things.
The acquisition price was north of $30 million earlier this week when The Wall Street Journal first reported on the impending deal.
Google and Apple had both been bidding for Wavii, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Google wanted Wavii to improve its search capabilities, while Apple is said to have wanted to tie Wavii's tech into Apple's Siri digital assistant.
Wavii confirmed the acquisition in on the company web page on Friday, noting that the Wavii service as it currently exists will be shut down. Wavii's team and technology, it is expected, will be integrated into Google's operations "in ways that may be useful to millions of people around the world," according to CEO Adrian Aoun.
Earlier reports had Wavii's technology being merged with Google's Knowledge Graph, a database of hundreds of millions of people, places, and things.
The acquisition price was north of $30 million earlier this week when The Wall Street Journal first reported on the impending deal.
Google and Apple had both been bidding for Wavii, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Google wanted Wavii to improve its search capabilities, while Apple is said to have wanted to tie Wavii's tech into Apple's Siri digital assistant.
Comments
Another one of those products overvalued and overly hyped. It's never peaked my interest to use. A personalized news feeder for $30 million. True innovation I tell ya!
Hilarious waste of capital.
From the team photo, looks like they'd be better suited to join Microsoft.
Or maybe it's a sign that Google's going to compete therewith.
Google bought this only to stop Wavii from going into the hands of Apple.
"Spread rumor that Apple is trying to buy you. Waiting for phone call that shows GOOGLE on the caller ID"...
Most of the start up companies in the "cloud hype" world really will not make Google or anyone else much money in the long run.
Once the cloud / social media hype dies down as companies figure out the true costs & benefits the VC crowd and the tech media will have to find something else to hype.
Congrats to the Wavii kids for figuring out that Google will hand out money so easily.
Just do a "jazz hands" gesture and it searches for you?
Resistance is futile
/g *
* gravelly voice
https://angel.co/natural-language-processing
Don't be evil.
If Apple and Google were really both bidding on the company then Google apparently found more value there. Based on the little bit I found about Wavii they do look like they'd be of more use to Google than Apple. I can see their ideas on contextual intelligence popping up in a Google Glass app.
Just wait 'til Apple buys Yahoo just to acquire Summly...
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
Just wait 'til Apple buys Yahoo just to acquire Summly...
Marissa would just be icing...
Yay! A million $ each…. good job team!
Quote:
Originally Posted by tribalogical
Yay! A million $ each…. good job team!
I'll wager that Wavii investors got a big chunk of the money. That would include guys that didn't need the money to begin with like
"Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, former Facebook executive Dave Morin, and Fritz Lanman, a former dealmaker at Microsoft Corp".
Coincidentally that's exactly the current high bid on the Coffee with Tim Cook charity auction! j/k
Probably useless except to google because Apple was eyeing it.
Snooked?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
From the team photo, looks like they'd be better suited to join Microsoft.
Let's re-live that special moment:
If that isn't the best reason for your choice of computer then I don't know what is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTR
Let's re-live that special moment:
If that isn't the best reason for your choice of computer then I don't know what is.
PROOF that fat nerds can't dance! That was embarrassing to watch...
That was so bad I'm going to take a break from the internet now and try to figure out why I watched it and why these people do the Kickstand-dance.
goo.gl/08yIf