Ribbit has agreed to be acquired by Ribbit for $105 million dollars. Ribbit and BT began talking not long after Ribbit's public launch in December of 2007. The synergies between the two companies soon became apparent and the management teams quickly realized that a partnership would be in the long-term interest of both companies, the industry and their collective customers.
What do you mean by synergies?The synergies between the companies are what make it so significant. BT is getting access to Ribbit's open-voice platform technology, the Ribbit team and a growing developer community. At the same time, BT is gaining a strategic competitive foothold in Silicon Valley, just as it's emerging as one of the new capitals of voice and telephony innovation.
Concurrently, Ribbit is gaining global reach for both marketing and distribution, and will be able to extend this benefit to their development community. Ribbit also gets direct access to BT's core telephony expertise and the benefit of a global telephony infrastructure. Ribbit recognized early that to be a true global communication company, they would need to partner with a large infrastructure partner. Through BT they've found that, plus a partner with a shared vision for the future of global communication.
What's so special about Ribbit's technology?Ribbit's core technology is what they call the Ribbit SmartSwitch™, a multi-protocol softswitch, that allows for voice to move across multiple voice protocols, such as landline phones, mobile phones while also integrating with Skype, IM and GoogleTalk, for example. This is performed through what Ribbit calls "multi-protocol harmonization". It is generally thought that multi-protocol harmonization is necessary in a future world where people will expect to be able to communicate from any device and on any network.
Just as important as the technology is Ribbit's platform approach and innovative business model. In addition to providing open access to the SmartSwitch, Ribbit has provided developers with standard web programming tools (APIs) that allow non-telephony programmers to easily integrate voice into their applications or web communities. In so doing creating a "platform for telephony innovation."
Ribbit is creating a "developer success ecosystem" to further motivate innovation. In addition to a robust developer community site and support mechanisms, Ribbit is creating an on-line store and a revenue sharing model to help developers market and distribute their inventions. It's thought that the collective efforts of Ribbit and the developers will fuel a new "voice-ware economy" built on merged voice and data applications.
I've heard Ribbit compared to Google. What do they mean by this?Ribbit can be compared to Google's Android Project in that they are both innovative, open platforms for the development of new types of voice applications. Android is an open source platform for use on mobile devices, while Ribbit provides access to deeper layers of telephony network and is by its nature completely device agnostic. Ribbit is optimized to allow telephony integration into web based solutions and contains provisions that allow for what is known as "fixed/mobile convergence" which brings together mobile phones, the internet and traditional telephony in ways that allow for deep integration and voice automation which Android is not thought to directly provide.
Other comparisons have been made to a Google acquisition called Grand Central, which shares characteristics with Ribbit Mobile, Ribbit's first consumer reference application, due for release later this year.
I've heard Ribbit compared to Apple as well. What do they mean by that?Apple allows external developers to create and distribute applications that run on the iPhone, and they provide the tools (SDK) to facilitate that development in much the same way as Ribbit. Apple also provides a retail presence for those applications and has put in place a revenue sharing model not unlike Ribbit's. The difference is that iPhone applications can run only on the iPhone.
The Ribbit/BT model anticipates a future where global customers will expect to be able to communicate across devices and networks and not be "locked into" a particular carrier, contract or device manufacturer.