Talk2 Talks Up Venture Funding; Voice-enabled Infrastructure Company Secures $43 Million to Deploy Service to Network Operators.Business/Technology Editors SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2000 Talk2 Technology, Inc. (www.talk2.com), the voice-enabled infrastructure company, has completed a $43 million venture capital round with investments from Smart Technology Ventures (Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. ), New Media Venture Partners (Salt Lake City), Bluevector (Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.), Dominion Ventures (Menlo Park Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif.), SunAmerica Investments (Los Angeles), Thomas Weisel Partners Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWPG), often shortened to just TWP or TWeisel, is a U.S. middle-market and growth focused investment banking firm based in San Francisco, California. (San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden ) and Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq:ORCL ORCL Oracle (stock symbol) ). This round brings Talk2's total funding to $52 million. Hewlett-Packard (Nasdaq:HWP HWP Height (and) Weight Proportionate HWP Half-Wave Plate HWP Highway Patrol HWP Height Weight Proportional HWP Hewlett-Packard Corporation (stock symbol) HWP Hydrolyzed Whey Peptides ) is also an equity investor in Talk2. In conjunction with the financing, Talk2 has added Smart Technology Ventures Managing Director Joe Marks, New Media Venture Partners CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Scott McKinley, and Bluevector Managing Partner Joe Josephson to its Board of Directors. "With the number of voice technology companies vying for position in the wireless Internet space," said Joe Marks of co-lead investor Smart Technology Ventures, "we looked for more than an ad-based revenue model and expensive direct-to-consumer play. Talk2 has a scalable voice infrastructure, a sound business model and the right blend of leadership to execute its strategy." Talk2's latest round of venture funding will be used to deploy the only true carrier-grade voice infrastructure for network operators in the market. Funding will be also used for marketing and product development. "Talk2 is the voice-enabling infrastructure company for network operators," said Brian Charlesworth Professor Brian Charlesworth FRS (born 29 April 1945) is a British evolutionary biologist and editor of Biology Letters. Charlesworth gained a B.A. in natural sciences from Queen's College Cambridge, followed by a PhD in genetics from Cambridge in 1969. , Chief Executive Officer of Talk2 Technology. "We are the only company that can provide true carrier-grade solutions that integrate seamlessly into the carrier network. And unlike other companies, Talk2 has breakthrough technology that extends the security of the corporate firewall to the phone." Talk2 services are deployed to the enterprise through the network operator to deliver secure voice access to business-critical information including corporate email, enterprise applications and m-commerce. "Today's business decision cycles have collapsed into real time, forcing business people to make critical decisions in a tightly compressed timeframe," said Scott McKinley of co-lead investor New Media Venture Partners. "Talk2 dispels the common perception that people need to be disconnected from the information they need to make those decisions," he said. Talk2 is currently in trial with several leading network operators and other Fortune 500 companies. About Talk2 Talk2 Technology, Inc. is the global leader of scalable voice infrastructure and technology for network operators. Talk2 is backed by Smart Technology Ventures, New Media Venture Partners, Bluevector, Dominion Ventures, SunAmerica Investments, Thomas Weisel Partners, Hewlett-Packard Company (Nasdaq:HWP) and Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq:ORCL). Founded in October 1998, Talk2 has more than 90 employees and is based in Salt Lake City. For more information, visit http://www.talk2.com. |
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