Google has acquired a natural language processing startup called Wavii for more than $30 million. The search giant reportedly won the bid over Apple, which wanted the company to use for their Siri division. It now seems that Google will use the technology as part of their web search team / Knowledge Graph division according to a legitimate source as first reported by TechCrunch.
Earlier reports surfaced claiming the two companies were in talks but now it seems to be a done deal. It comes at a time when Yahoo just purchased aggregator Summly for $30 million – showing just how important mobile will be moving forward.
The acquisition could have been a valuable asset to Apple’s Siri division although we are unsure exactly how they would have used the technology. Perhaps then it seems to be a better fit with Google as we could see how it would help improve sidebar results on searches and the like.
What’s more, there’s also the potential that the newly acquired technology could be integrated with Google Glass or even Google News. The former sounds much more appealing and could be one of the reasons that Glass likely won’t make its consumer debut this year.
At present, Wavii employs roughly 25 people including founder Adrian Aoun. Aoun, a former Microsoft manager, will move along with his team from Seattle to join the Knowledge Graph division. No word yet on when the announcement will be made official, however.
