Tellme. Networks, Inc. is a company founded in 1999 by Mike McCue and Angus Davis, based out of Mountain View, California, in the United States, that specializes in telephone-based applications. Tellme Networks was acquired by Microsoft on March 14, 2007 for "close to $800M". The deal closed in late April. Tellme's phone network processes more than two billion unique calls per year. In April 1999, the Tellme founding team, consisting of McCue, Davis, Rod Brathwaite, Jim Fanning, Kyle Sims, Brad Porter, Michael Plitkins, Hadi Partovi, John Giannandrea, Andrew Volkmann, Anthony Accardi, Patrick... McCormick, Danny Howard, Vicki Flores, and Emil Michael assembled in Mountain View, California. In 2000, Tellme launched an internet platform that delivered content to telephones — a concept frequently called voice portals. Early competitors included TelSurf Networks, BeVocal, Hey Anita and Quack.com. Quack.com was founded in 1999 and acquired in September, 2000 by America Online to power its competing service, AOL By Phone. At least ten additional competitors appeared in 2000 in various attempts to mimic the funding success of Tellme. Tellme was featured in the 2001 documentary Wild at Start.
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