Today might be a good day to yell “touchdown.” Two months ago, I had reported that Microsoft had been eyeing Teleo, a small San Francisco-based VoIP provider. Now finally, there is a confirmation via C/Net News.com.
“We’ve been making a lot of investments in voice, but as we looked at continuing…we had that build or buy discussion,” said Brooke Richardson, lead product manager for MSN’s communication services division. “We decided that if we wanted to do things rapidly, Teleo was a good fit.”
According to News.com, Teleo’s technology is going to become part of the MSN Messenger platform. That is keeping in line with what I had speculated.
Teleo is very similar to Microsoft’s Communicator which works well with others Microsoft offerings such as Outlook. But that is primarily an enterprise product, and has been a big area of focus for Microsoft. I am pretty sure Microsoft is looking for ways to add VoIP capabilities to some of their consumer offerings.
Om: You rule. Great catch. I just caught the alert right now. Any more predictions, oh wise one!
I don’t get it. Is this a buy because there were personal relationships involved? I don’t see why Microsoft/MSN would need a Teleo.
Well, bought into MSN. Goodbye Teleo.
Nice call Om!