Amazon has completed a deal worth $26m (£17m) to acquire Cambridge-based start-up Evi, developer of the voice-activated virtual intelligence applications of the same name.
The deal has been rumoured for some time and according to deal logs on Computing's sister site Unquote, Amazon's purchase of Evi has been completed:
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"In April 2013, US-based Amazon has acquired the provider of natural search platform Evi (formerly TrueKnowledge), for $26m, resulting in the exit of Octopus Investments."
Original investors Octopus pumped over £2.6m into Evi but divested itself of the firm late last year.
Evi, originally founded in 2005 under the name TrueKnowledge, is responsible for the Evi app, a voice-activated "digital assistant" that works in a similar fashion to Apple's Siri software.
Users ask Evi a question, by voice or text, such as "where can I get dinner locally?" to which Evi respondes by listing nearby restaurants.
Unlike Apple's iPhone-specific Siri, the free Evi application is also available for the Android platform. Evi's similarity to Siri caused Apple to threaten to remove it from the iTunes App Store shortly after it was launched at the beginning of last year, however the firm later changed its mind.
Amazon's purchase of a voice-operated mobile search application is likely to re-stoke rumours that the web giant is looking to enter the smartphone market. The firm already produces a number of successful tablets and e-readers including the Amazon Kindle Fire, and there is certainly potential for an Amazon smartphone to be based around the existing Amazon Appstore ecosystem.
Computing approached Evi for comment, but at time of writing the company had not responded.
