Rumors are rife that Microsoft is in talks to acquire Tellme Networks, notes GigaOm. The WSJ and CNet have both reported the news, and said that the asking price could be $800 million—but GigaOm claims its source said the price will be higher than that. Tellme is profitable and has raised over $235 million in venture funding.
The attraction for Microsoft is apparently the promise of using Tellme’s voice interface and back-end server technologies to help in MS’s plan of converging data and voice, especially on mobiles and other non-PC devices.