Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) announced at its Developer Forum this week that it acquired Indisys, a startup which focuses on technology for natural language recognition. Rachel King of ZDNET reports that the acquisition has already happened and that most of Indisys’ employees have already gone over to Intel.
Intel’s deal with Indisys
The deal actually closed on May 31. Although the financial details are not being released, Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch reports that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) paid more than $26 million to acquire the company. Intel also told the site that “the value of the transaction is not material to Intel.”
Indisys is located in Seville, Spain, and one of the employees who moved to the chip maker is Pilar Manchon, former CEO of the company, who has apparently moved to Santa Clara and is now working in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s research and development department.
Intel and Indisys already had a working relationship through Intel Capital, the company’s venture capital investment arm. Intel Capital was the leader of a $5 million Series A investment into Indisys last November, and the company raised a little over $6 million. The investment was aimed at helping the company expand into international markets, although the company has been around for about a decade.
Intel’s plans for Indisys
There’s no official word on what plans Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) might have to incorporate the company’s technology into its products. A spokesperson for the chip maker told TechCrunch the company has “a deep background in computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and machine learning.”
TechCrunch did speculate though on what Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) might do with the company’s technology. Indisys not only develops natural language technology, but also virtual assistant technology like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Siri. One of the company’s creations is Maya, a digital virtual assistant. Companies like The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) have used technology from Indisys to create unmanned aircraft.
Intel is beginning to move into 3D visualization and perceptual computing, and it did recently acquire Omek, a company which makes gesture-based interfaces and another one of the chip maker’s partners through venture capital investment. Indisys’ technology could fit quite nicely into this area as the company may be working voice recognition into its products.
