Intel has quietly scooped up natural language recognition firm Indisys just two months after purchasing gesture-based specialist Omek. It wasn't revealed how much Intel paid for the 10-year-old Spanish start-up but reports peg the value at just north of €20 million ($26 million).
An Intel spokesperson confirmed the acquisition with multiple publications, noting that the agreement to acquire the company was signed on May 31 and has now officially closed. It's a bit interesting that news of the acquisition didn't come down sooner as Chipzilla just wrapped up their annual IDF conference.
The spokesperson further pointed out Indisys has a deep background in computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and machine learning.
Intel said they aren't disclosing any details about how they might use the technologies but based on the list of attributes mentioned above, the chip maker will likely get a lot of mileage for their money. The majority of Indisys employees have since joined Intel including CEO Pilar Manchon who is now working in Intel's R&D department.
News of the acquisition wasn't terribly surprising as the chip maker's venture capital arm, Intel Capital, led a $5 million Series A investment in Indisys back in November 2002 to help bolster international efforts.
Indisys's dialog-based technology has earned a solid reputation among Spanish companies like El Corte, banking giant BBVA, Boeing and insurance group Mapfre. The company specializes in natural language technology and intelligent assistant services like Siri.