Spinvox up for sale as investors bemoan huge losses

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 11 Sep 2009 at 14:31

Troubled voicemail-to-text service, Spinvox, is up for sale as investors raise doubts over the financial health of the company.

Spinvox claims its software is capable of automatically converting voicemail messages to text. However, its credibility took a huge knock earlier this summer, when a BBC investigation claimed the majority of voicemail messages left on the service were actually being transcribed by call-centre staff.

Now the company's financial health is being called into question by fund manager, Invesco. Its annual filing shows that the value of its stake in Spinvox has slumped from £759,000 to only £75,000. The decline in value can be partly explained by a Spinvox's £15m share issue earlier this year, which diluted Invesco's holding.

Nevertheless, Invesco characterises its investment in Spinvox as "disappointing". "The company's holding in SpinVox, the voicemail-to-text messaging business, was written down in value after the company chose not to invest in a further funding round, which was dilutive to non-participating investors," Invesco's annual filing states.

"The business has been put up for sale, and it is possible that, should a good sales price be achieved, the new valuation may be exceeded."

Spinvox was hit with allegations of financial irregularities earlier this summer, after company shareholders were sent a dossier making "detailed allegations about the running of the company".

Spinvox was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.