Nortel has acquired positional voice technology specialist DiamondWare. DiamondWare's technology uses wideband, stereo capability and custom spatial positioning to deliver real-time interactions in 3D virtual worlds and meetings, online gaming systems and multimedia applications. Under the terms of the agreement, Nortel will acquire all outstanding shares of DiamondWare. The acquisition costs, including employee retention and transaction costs, were approximately USD 7 million in cash, plus up to an additional USD 3 million to DiamondWare security holders based on achievement of future business milestones over the next 40 months. Nortel will use DiamondWare's technology across its carrier and enterprise portfolios to enhance its multimedia, voice conferencing and VoIP services. In addition, DiamondWare technology will be used for new advanced research projects that are part of Nortel's Incubation Programme. Nortel also announced Project Chainsaw, part of the Incubation Program. The project has developed a product called web.alive, a virtual world software application that provides 3D voice and graphics for internal business communications as well as customer and channel partner relations. Web.alive will leverage voice, HD audio, presence, identity and corporate security technologies to bring boring conference calls to life in a virtual world within the security of each corporation's own network.

Source:Telecompaper