Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has reportedly bought data analysis and search engine start-up, Graphiq Inc., to improve its Alexa voice assistant.
The US tech giant acquired Graphiq in May in a deal worth about US$50mln, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Graphiq, founded in 2009 as Find the Best, allows users to search on a topic and get a variety of details on the subject, presented in a simplified chart. Chief executive Kevin O’Connor has said the idea for the company came after he had a hard time trying to compare ski resorts for a holiday.
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Amazon has also recently started looking to hire more software developers and data associates in Santa Barbara to work on Alexa as it faces rising competition from the likes of Apple (NYSE:AAPL) and Google. Alexa is used in Amazon’s smart speaker, the Amazon Echo.
Last month Apple revealed its own smart speaker, the HomePod, which is powered using voice assistant, Siri. Google has Google Home that uses personal assistant, Google Now.
Graphiq was said to have attracted bid interest from Google and IBM (NYSE:IBM) before agreeing a deal with Amazon.
Last year O’Connor had said he could see Graphiq’s technology being used with Amazon Echo, Siri and Google Now
“Rather than making people think like computers, we're making computers think like people,” he said.
Amazon and Graphic both declined to comment on the reported takeover.