Despite the fact that the $44.6 billion takeover bid by Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) is hanging over the company like a dark cloud, Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) continues to forge ahead with a determined spirit as it embarks upon cutting-edge business ventures, including a new venture with the Massachusetts-based start-up company Vlingo Corp.
This new venture could help Yahoo to challenge Google Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) dominance of the Internet-based mobile services market.
Yahoo plans to compete with Google in this burgeoning market by offering search services that use speech-recognition technology.
More specifically, Yahoo will implement its new oneSearch 2.0 mobile search services in partnership with Vlingo Corp, already a leading speech-recognition company, Yahoo reported in a press release.
"With the voice-enabled version of Yahoo! oneSearch, consumers can search for anything, including flight numbers, locations, Web-site names, local restaurants, and more, by simply speaking," Yahoo said in its release.
The fact that these two companies aren’t starting their business relationship from scratch makes this joint venture more promising.
NewsVisual decided to create an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map in order to illustrate the business connections between Yahoo and Vlingo Corp.
Most of the connections run through Vlingo Director Robert E Divoli whom the Knowledge Map shows to be linked to a venture capital firm with links to Yahoo named Alliance Bernstein LP. This VC firm has connections to two companies that Mr Divoli served in Senior Executive positions with, Versata Inc and Internet Security Systems Inc.
In addition, the Map indicates that Mr Divoli is also associated through Sybase Inc with a technical designer with strong ties to Yahoo named Sanjeev Dharap.
All of these associations in some way connect Mr Divoli to Yahoo in ways similar to the company’s new business venture with Vlingo Corp; that is, either through an association involving venture capital or through a technical person who specializes in designing Internet-based systems.
There are additional connecting nodes between Yahoo and Vlingo as well.
Todd C Chaffee is connected to Yahoo as a venture capitalist. He is also linked to Mr Divoli through Sybase as a VC. Similarly, Mr Chaffee is link through Nuance Communications Inc to Vlingo Directors Michael S Phillips and John Nguyen.
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