The newswires today have been rife with a rumor that Microsoft is close to buying Tellme Networks, a provider of voice-enabled applications.
According to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNet, Microsoft may be willing to pay $800 million or more. But so far, representatives of both companies have refused to comment.
That reticence may not last much longer. Wired News has learned that Tellme employees were summoned to an unscheduled all-hands meeting for this afternoon at 4:30 -- generally a sign that a company has a particularly big announcement to make. Three guesses what that might be.
Adding credence to the rumor was Tellme CEO Mike McCue's speech at the company's regularly scheduled annual employees' meeting on March 2. In the past, our source says, McCue has always talked down any acquisition rumors, emphasizing his plans for independence, IPO, and his hopes that Tellme would become a 100-year brand like AT&T.
This year, McCue, speaking to Tellme's gathered employees on the hangar deck of the USS Hornet in Alameda, California, talked about his childhood dreams of being an astronaut. He described how he applied to the Air Force Academy, got a recommendation from his congressman, but then had to give up that dream after his father died. Instead, McCue's yarn went, he became an entrepreneur.
In place of the usual rumor-quashing, a story about how giving up on your dreams sometimes turns out for the best. Sounds like the setup for a change of course, doesn't it?
Stay tuned... we'll have updates as this story develops.
