DSP Group Buys Rest of Israel’s VoicePump, Names New CEO

SANTA CLARA, California – Israel-founded DSP Group Inc (DSPG) said it completed its option to buy the remaining founders’ shares of Israel-based VoicePump Inc., for 161,433 shares of stock, now worth $3 million.
VoicePump will become part of DSP Group’s U.S.-based broadband products group and will continue to focus on developing its voice-over-broadband gateway products. DSP Group chairman Eli Ayalon said the deal will get DSP aimed at the small- and medium-enterprise markets.

As part of the deal, DSP named Didier Boivin as chief executive of VoicePump. Boivin was General Manager of Alcatel Microelectronics USA, the semiconductor arm of Belgium-based Alcatel, a supplier of chip sets for asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) applications.

“The addition of Didier Boivin to our senior management team, in combination with the purchase of the remaining VoicePump equity, demonstrates our commitment to VoicePump, ,” Ayalon said.

VoicePump is approaching its first product shipment, following on the heels of its announcement last October of its VP100 products for VoB applications. The products are based on DSP’s TeakLiteDSPCore processor, which includes an integrated set of peripherals optimized for VoDSL IADs and other packet voice applications.

VoicePump specializes in speech coding and telecom algorithms for VoIP, VoDSL and other voice-over-packet applications developed for voice-gateway and customer-premise-equipment manufacturers and broadband-network providers. It has offices in Palo Alto, Calif., Schaumburg, Ill., and Israel.