Successful Speech Processing Business To Be Sold Off By Philips

Dutch electronics giant, Royal Philips Electronics, has confirmed plans to sell off its Speech Processing business to Invest AG. The PE fund is part of the Upper Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group. Speech Processing has so far been a part of the Philips Consumer Lifestyle banner, operating directly under Lifestyle Entertainment division of the business. The acquisition of Speech Processing will depend on the outcome of standard regulatory filings and based on the advice from the works council, and the financials are being kept under wraps for the moment, but the potential transaction has been slated for the second quarter of 2012.

Speech Processing (www.speech.philips.com)

Speech Processing is a Vienna-based world leader in professional voice dictation systems. Founded in 1954, the company currently boasts 170 employees servicing a global market. At the moment, Speech Processing lays claim to the fact that it has helped Philips to be the only end-to-end provider of complete speech-to-text services, which include hardware, software, services and all the underlying technology that drives this segment. Speech Processing has introduced several innovative and path-breaking products, such as the stationary dictation device, SpeechMike, a similar solution for mobile phones from the Digital Pocket Memo series and the Barcode Module, which allows easy linking of Voice Commands to client data. The more prominent SpeechExec family of software products is considered to be one of the most robust speech-to-content solutions in the industry today.