29 July 2008 No Comment

The rumor has been making the rounds in the blogoshphere, but now it is official: Ribbit, the Silicon Valley-based “Telco 2.0” platform company, has been acquired by BT, a global provider of communications solutions and services. We first covered Ribbit here and also profiled there amphibian application.

Here.s part of the email we received from the Ted Griggs, Co-Founder and CEO of Ribbit Corporation:

I want you to know that we’ve taken a big leap forward in delivering communications innovation to you and countless other people around the globe.

Ribbit has been acquired by BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services. BT chose Ribbit as a partner based on a number of innovations, including Amphibian, which is now available to developers as a platform for customization.

The entire Ribbit team is thrilled by this partnership and what it means for early friends like you. With BT’s collaboration, scale and capabilities, we can accelerate our own efforts and increase the functionality of the products and services we deliver to our users. We can also bring the power of a globally recognized communications firm to everything we build at Ribbit.

Not much information in the email, but a BT news release revealed a lot more about the acquisition:

BT today announced it has acquired Ribbit Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based “Telco 2.0” platform company, for $105 million in cash, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The acquisition will accelerate BT’s strategy to transform itself into a next- generation, platform-based, software-driven services company.

Based in Mountain View, California, Ribbit – “Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company” – provides an open platform which enables developers to create new and innovative voice applications and services by combining telephony and internet technologies in new ways.

Using Ribbit’s platform, developers are able to add voice and automation features to virtually any web-based application or community. For example, using Ribbit, developers have integrated voice into salesforce.com and built voice applications that run directly from Facebook or iGoogle. Since its launch, Ribbit has attracted thousands of developers, launched an innovative solution for the enterprise software market, and has begun testing a consumer application scheduled for general release later this year.

The acquisition of the Ribbit platform will complement BT’s existing capability in the software platform space with its award-winning Software Development Kit (SDK) initiative. BT’s SDKs enable developers to integrate new applications with BT’s services using a single line of code. Ribbit, which will maintain its management team and identity, will extend its global footprint by becoming part of BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries.

source

Ribbit has an active and vibrant developer community, and a development platform that is impressive, but it is difficult for a lay person to valuate a company that has no product in the market place. Ribbit’s founders, employees, and investors surely felt that “$105 million in cash” from BT is a decent price otherwise the deal would not have gone through. But comparing this to other tech acquisitions, $105 million in cash feels like pocket change. Consider, for a moment, that Ebay acquired Skype for $6.0 billion.

Because Ribbit does not have a user base like similar companies tha have been acquired, the $105 million is just payment for it’s development platform. Whether BT will succeed in integrating the Ribbit platform into it’s vast portfolio remains to be seen. But even if they do not, it’s just $105 million - pocket change.