Tellme
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Tellme Networks was a Mountain View voice-services company founded in 1999 by Mike McCue and Angus Davis. It pioneered the 'voice portal': dialing 1-800-555-TELL let callers get time, weather, news, business listings, stock quotes and driving directions via voice prompts and speech recognition. In 2006 its phone network processed more than 2 billion calls. Businesses also used its voice platform for customer service applications like banking and package tracking.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Mike McCue and Angus Davis found Tellme Networks in Mountain View to build telephone-based voice services.
- Voice portal
Tellme launches its voice portal service delivering web content to telephones, with 1-800-555-TELL as its showcase.
- Acquired by Microsoft
On March 14, 2007, Microsoft acquires Tellme Networks for approximately $800 million; the deal closes in late April.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.