Dopo soli sette mesi dal lancio della propria piattaforma, Ribbit è stata acquisita da BT, come alcune voci avevano anticipato qualche settimana fa. Ribbit offre una piattaforma basata su Flash per creare applicazioni Web con funzionalità VoIP e di comunicazione avanzata (si pensi ad applicazioni CRM, Call Center o per la comunicazione personale), che possono interoperare con le piattaforme VoIM più diffuse: MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, gTalk e presto anche Skype.

Il fine dell’acquisizione per BT è probabilmente attirare sviluppatori (Ribbit ne ha circa 4000 registrati), che potranno integrare le proprie applicazioni con la rete dell’operatore. Certo, c’è da chiedersi se sarà possibile creare il prossimo Skype sulla piattaforma di un incumbent.

Di seguito alcune interessanti affermazioni del CEO di Ribbit, intervistato da TechCrunch:

I just spoke with Ribbit CEO Ted Griggs and JP Rangaswami, a managing director at BT. Griggs says:

At the end of the day we are trying to make BT into a software company. BT has never acquired a pre-revenue company before.

Rangaswami emphasizes that what BT is buying is the team, the technology, and access to developers in Silicon Valley (Ribbit has already attracted about 5,000 to its platform). He adds:

It is very unusual for us to even be making a play across the pond. It is not an experiment.

We wanted to up the ante in the global communications platform trade. We could have been an AT&T and provide pipes. We could have been an Apple and innovate around the pipes. Or we could have been a Google and serve ads around the pipes. But as we envisioned the world of open-based platforms, it had to be global and scale digitally, so it had to be about software.

Qui un video dei fondatori che spiegano il proprio prodotto e maggiori informazioni in una presentazione.

Dal blog di Ribbit, l’annuncio della vendita:

Today we’re sharing the great news that Ribbit has been acquired by BT one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services. This marks the most important day yet in Ribbit’s history. As part of BT will be able to more quickly extend our vision beyond Silicon Valley and bring our products and technology to the entire world. We couldn’t be more excited than to announce this new partnership.

Why would we agree to be acquired so soon after our December, 2007 launch? The answer is easy. In these seven busy months, we’ve learned from our customers and partners that our market opportunities are bigger than we had imagined and that aligning with a large-scale partner was the most direct route to building the Ribbit vision.

BT expressed an early interest in Ribbit and we’ve spent months getting to know one another. The teams at both Ribbit and BT deeply believe that our collaboration will serve our developers, the people who use our products and services, our partners and even the global communications industry. We like the idea of “rethinking communications” with a partner as strategic and visionary as BT. You can read more about that direction here. We will be sharing more details on this partnership, and introducing you to some key people on the BT team, here on this blog in the next few days—so please stay tuned.

Please join in our enthusiasm and excitement for this new partnership, and accept our thanks for the support you have shown to Ribbit so far. Both the Ribbit and BT teams promise to do all in our power to bring you the communications solutions you’ll need and want as this exciting space continues to evolve.

The best is yet to come!

Ted Griggs, Co-Founder and CEO

Via Ribbit Blog

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