Press release

Datamedia acquires Idylic

Toulouse, France, July 1st, 2004

Datamedia announces today the acquisition of Idylic (Toulouse, France), a  software publisher for telephony server solutions publisher and a well known provider of new voice technologies based on XML.

Founded in 2000, Idylic - 11 people and 1 M$ in revenue - has developed an extensive knowledge in VoiceXML and CCXML. Those emerging standards are meant to facilitate the development of interactive voice response (IVR) applications and reduce their operating costs.

As a European pioneer of these new standards, Idylic is also promoting them through the VoiceXML Forum. As an active member of that group, Idylic has a solid expertise in Text to Speech (TTS) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). Idylic  has deployed those technologies for many customers in France (MAAF Assurances, EDF, ...) and in other countries (Orange in Ivory Coast, Sonatel Mobiles in Senegal, …).

« Until now, the Voice server industry lacked a single player able to deploy a complete, coherent and durable offer that would live up to the stakes brought by VoiceXML and Voice over IP. By joining Datamedia, Idylic takes advantage of an unprecedented technological breakthrough in the IVR market. » declares Cédric Buzay, Idylic's Chief Executive Officer.

« Thanks to the evolution of telecommunication networks and the constant increase in computing power, new high value added services make their way to the end-user. VoiceXML, because it simplifies the creation of voice applications, is undoubtedly a strong asset. Therefore, it was natural for Datamedia to offer . VoiceXML  to its customers. The acquisition of Idylic provides Datamedia the best way to achieve this goal and at the same time be aligned with the company's values of technological excellence and system durability », says Vladimir A. Brauner, Datamedia's Chief Executive Officer.

Datamedia is acquiring leading competences on several major aspects of the voice technology market. On one hand, this will complement the Irisa product suite, enabling Datamedia customers to take advantage of those technologies. On another hand Idylic's customers will benefit from Datamedia's rich offer, more specifically in the domains of multimedia server, Call Center, software PBX and Voice over IP.

About Datamedia:
Datamedia- a French company founded in 1989, 30 people - publishes the Irisa Multimedia Communication Software and has a worldwide customer base of several hundred companies. Irisa is a robust and integrated software solution for the creation of full-featured Multimedia Contact Centers, IP switches (PBX and Centrex), IN Service Nodes and Interactive Applications on all media (including Telephone, Internet, Voice over IP, Fax, Wap, i-Mode, Videotex and SMS). Irisa is subject to multiple United States and international patents. Datamedia has branches in France (Paris, Toulouse), in Japan (Tokyo) and in the United States (San Francisco).
For more information, see  www.irisa.com

Contact :
Sophie Brauner, tel.
+33 (0)1 58 07 11 60 or sbrauner@datamedia.fr