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By Alorie Gilbert, 3 November 2005 08:10

NEWS

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has acquired a small company that specialises in voice communication over the web, the second acquisition it's made in that market in recent months.

The purchase of Media-streams.com, a 23-employee firm based in Zurich, Switzerland, gives Microsoft a set of business applications that tap voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. VoIP services let people place phone calls over the internet, usually at a discount to traditional phone services.

The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, follows Microsoft's acquisition of internet calling start-up Teleo in August. While Teleo's technology is aimed at consumers and has been incorporated into MSN, Media-streams' applications are designed for businesses. Microsoft plans to link the software to its corporate instant message system and Office productivity applications.

Ed Wadbrook, director of VoIP strategies for the Real-Time Collaboration Group at Microsoft described some ways customers can use the combined products. For instance, a call center agent could open an email about a problem in Microsoft Outlook and simply highlight and right-click on the sender's name to initiate a web call with the person. With a few more clicks, the agent could conference in another party or start trouble shooting the problem remotely, he said.