T9 predictive-text input developer purchased for $265M
by Nilay Patel 
posted Jun 22nd 2007 at 2:22AM
Tegic might not be a household name, but it's a solid bet you've used their software -- the company is responsible for the T9 predictive-text input system that's installed in virtually every cellphone out there. That makes Tegic worth about $265 million, apparently, because that's how much voice-recognition firm Nuance just dished out to Time Warner AOL for the company. (Disclosure: AOL is our parent company's parent company.) Nuance is on a buying spree lately, having bought VoiceSignal, BeVocal, and Dictaphone in the past year -- the goal is apparently to control much of how users interact with their phones, be it voice, touch, or text. Here's hoping Nuance doesn't make any sweeping changes while they chase that rainbow -- at this point we're so hard-wired for T9 that it's difficult to imagine that it's licensed software and not, say, a fundamental property of mathematics. 4663 5825, 4897.[Via RCRWireless News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Owen V @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:37AM
so AOL is your grandparent company? :)
Julian @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:52AM
I used T9 so much that I could text without looking at the phone. I'd often text during dinner or at the movies without ever taking the phone out of my jacket pocket. So it only took me about three seconds to decipher your T9 message in my head: GOOD LUCK, GUYS.
Robbie @ Jun 23rd 2007 6:50PM
no fair! i decoded the message like one minute after the article went up and they deleted my post :( lol
Stephen @ Jun 22nd 2007 10:03AM
I love T9. I wish motorola would give up this ITap crap and get with it. Sure, it supposedly takes less typing but it's not intuitive like T9 is.
Robbie @ Jun 23rd 2007 6:50PM
omg i couldnt agree more11111111111
fred @ Jun 22nd 2007 10:01PM
i'm glad somebody explained what those numbers meant -- thx, julian.
Andrew H. @ Jun 25th 2007 12:11PM
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