tellme speech recognition system found in windows phone . tellme networks inc. type subsidiary of microsoft industry telecommunication founded 1999 headquarters mountain view california key people mike mccue chief executive products telephone services and applications number of employees 360 2008 1 website www.tellme.com tellme networks inc. was an american company founded in 1999 by mike mccue and angus davis 2 which specialized in telephone based applications . its headquarters were based in mountain view california . tellme networks was acquired by microsoft on march 14 2007 for approximately 800 million ; the deal closed in late april 2007 . 3 in 2006 tellme s phone network processed more than 2 billion unique calls . 4 tellme established an information number 1 800 555 tell which provided time of day announcements weather forecasts brief news and sports summaries business searches stock market quotations driving directions and similar amenities . operating by voice prompts and speech recognition software it was set up in 2000 as a loss leader service to demonstrate the tellme functionality to u.s. consumers . the voice of the tellme service is darby bailey . 5 tellme was sold to microsoft for approximately 800 million and now a subsidiary of microsoft . in early 2012 microsoft divested itself of tellme networks interactive voice response ivr service and the majority of its employees to 24 7 inc. 6 the service was moved to a non toll free number at 408 752 8052 . contents 1 history 2 services 3 customers 4 see also 5 notes history edit in april 1999 the tellme founding team consisting of mike mccue angus davis rod brathwaite jim fanning kyle sims brad porter michael plitkins hadi partovi john giannandrea andrew volkmann anthony accardi patrick mccormick danny howard vicki penrose and emil michael assembled in mountain view california . in 2000 tellme announced a service that delivered content to telephones a concept called voice portals . early competitors included telsurf networks bevocal hey anita and quack.com . quack.com was founded in 1999 and acquired in september 2000 by america online for its competing service aolbyphone . at least ten additional competitors appeared in 2000 in various attempts to mimic the funding success of tellme . 7 tellme was featured in the 2001 documentary wild at start . 8 and was referenced in a 2000 malcolm gladwell article in the new yorker about recruiting . 9 in 2008 the company debuted a feature especially for christmas eve ; callers can dial 800 555 tell and hear recorded messages from santa claus . if called on christmas eve santa will say what state he is traveling over and what exactly he is doing . in 2009 they added a service that allows you to receive messages a week early from santa explaining what he is doing to prepare for christmas . at the onset of service as a way to gain more users they offered a free long distance call feature . callers would call tellme and were given 1 free minute of long distance call time to their desired phone number . that service was later stopped while other services persisted . services edit voice portal customers build internet powered voice enabled applications on the tellme network using tellme studio . tellme studio is a web based voicexml development tool . the tellme platform is based on open standards like voicexml ccxml and voip . the tellme voice portal which includes directory assistance can be accessed by calling 408 752 8052 . customers edit some of the services running on tellme s network include directory assistance 4 1 1 for at & t and verizon landline at & t s voice dial 08 customer service for merrill lynch e trade financial and american airlines and e commerce services for fandango . 10 see also edit list of speech recognition software speech recognition notes edit liedtke michael march 1 2008 . tellme s tale as microsoft subsidiary . associated press via wired news . retrieved 2008 03 01 . tellme s naughty schoolboy business week march 13 2006 . microsoft purchase of tellme adds voice to web initiative the wall street journal march 15 2007 retrieved 2009 06 01 tellme and cingular plan broader directory service the new york times october 9 2006 . darby bailey official website . microsoft offloads some speech focused assets employees to 24 7 world wide web log zd net february 7 2012 . as silicon valley reboots the geeks take charge the new york times october 26 2003 . dept. of oops after four years heeere s wild at start a documentary celebrating visionary new economy entrepreneurs salon july 25 2001 . gladwell malcolm may 29 2000 the new boy network the new yorker . press release tellme august 21 2006 . v t e microsoft history all topics people list founders bill gates paul allen board of directors john w. thompson chairman satya nadella ceo dina dublon maria klawe david marquardt charles noski helmut panke mason morfit john w. stanton senior leadership team satya nadella ceo scott guthrie amy hood cfo qi lu terry myerson harry shum kevin turner coo corporate vps joe belfiore richard rashid svp s. somasegar svp divisions engineering groups mobile skype unit digital crimes unit garage press research studios . net foundation outercurve foundation estates microsoft redmond campus microsoft talo microsoft algeria microsoft egypt microsoft india microsoft japan product families operating systems windows software office servers visual studio hardware band hololens lumia surface xbox web properties bing channel 9 codeplex developer network msn office.com onedrive outlook.com technet windows store conferences build mix pdc teched winhec wpc criticism bundling of microsoft windows clippy iloo internet explorer microsoft bob nsakey windows 2000 me xp vista xbox 360 litigation alcatel lucent v. microsoft apple v. microsoft european union microsoft competition case microsoft v. lindows microsoft vs. mikerowesoft microsoft v. shah united states v. microsoft acquisitions 6wunderkinder altamira software aquantive azyxxi the blue ribbon soundworks bungie calista technologies colloquis connectix consumers software danger farecast fasa studio fast search & transfer firefly forethought giant company software greenbutton groove networks high heat major league baseball hotmail jellyfish.com linkexchange lionhead studios massive incorporated mobile data labs mojang nokia devices and services onfolio pando networks perceptive pixel placeware powerset proclarity rare revolution analytics screentonic secure islands skype sunrise atelier swiftkey winternals software teleo telekinesys research tellme networks twisted pixel games vermeer technologies visio corporation vivaty defunct volometrix vxtreme webtv networks xamarin yammer yupi category commons microsoft portal wikiproject retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tellme networks & oldid 710405426 categories mountain view californiadirectory assistance servicestelecommunications companies of the united 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