General Magic gains on SpeechWorks deal

General Magic Inc. (Nasdaq:GMGC) said Tuesday it and SpeechWorks International (Nasdaq: SPWX) will jointly develop and host voice technology for enterprise, telecommunications and Internet companies.

Shares in General Magic, a voice application service provider, ran up 11 percent, or 0.84 to 8.31 on Island ECN ahead of Tuesday's opening bell. The stock got a boost earlier this year when IBM agreed to use the company's voice systems.

SpeechWorks, closed down 8.43 to 64.63, or almost 12 percent Monday. Shares have made steep gains since the company made its IPO at $20 a share August 1.

The companies have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the collaboration which they say will combine General Magic's expertise in voice applications built on their VoiceXML-based magicTalk platform, and SpeechWorks' expertise in speech recognition, Text-to-Speech and VoiceXML technologies.

General Magic plans to offer its customers SpeechWorks speech technologies, including its newly acquired advanced Text-to-Speech engine from AT&T (NYSE: T), which the company announced June 13. General Magic will combine them with its magicTalk and Voice-XML-based voice solutions. SpeechWorks plans to offer its customers a hosted voice solution through General Magic. The companies will also jointly market and sell the combined product.