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Confirming rumors that TMCnet reported three weeks ago, initially flatly denied, Britain’s major telecom provider today announced that it’s acquired Ribbit (News - Alert) Corporation for $105 million cash.

 

The acquisition of Ribbit, a Mountain View, California-based company that combines telephony and Internet technology to help developers create new voice applications, is expected to help get BT (News - Alert) to a next-generation, platform-based, software-driven services company, according to BT.

 

According to JP Rangaswami, managing director of service design at BT, Silicon Valley is emerging as a hotbed of telecommunications innovation.

 

“Wh Ribbit, not only do we extend our presence in the Valley, but we also gain a groundbreaking platform, a growing community of developers and a world-class team that share a common vision,” Rangaswami said. “Buying Ribbit lets us accelerate that vision.”

Using Ribbit’s platform, developers can add voice and automation features to virtually any Web-based application or community, according to BT. For example, BT officials say, using Ribbit, developers have integrated voice into Salesforce.com (News - Alert) and built voice applications that run directly from Facebook or iGoogle. Since its launch, Ribbit has attracted thousands of developers, the company says, launched an innovative solution for the enterprise software market, and has begun testing a consumer application scheduled for general release later this year.
 
BT officials say the acquisition of the Ribbit platform will complement their existing capability in the software platform space. BT says its software development kits help developers integrate new applications with BT’s services using a single line of code.

 

According to industry insider Dan Farber, the move indicates that Ribbit’s voice APIs only make sense as part of a global network services company like BT.

 

“He (Rangaswami) is depending on what he called the ‘magic of the community’ to ‘see things we cannot’ and innovate with BT's development platform and network, Farber said.

 

According to Ted Griggs, Ribbit’s chief executive, the communications industry is entering a new phase.

 

“Closed networks are becoming open platforms and developers are now driving innovation,” Griggs said. “By adding Ribbit’s capability to the power of BT’s global 21CN platform, we will now be able to give the development community the tools they need to innovate on a global scale. We are delighted – BT is exactly the partner we were seeking.”