Amazon speaks for Kindle Fire with Ivona buy

Internet retail colossus Amazon.com on Thursday announced the purchase of a text-to-speech technology company in a move evidently aimed at ramping up the capabilities of its Kindle Fire tablet computers. Amazon did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Poland-based Ivona Software, which it said already powers text-to-speech, Voice Guide, and Explore by Touch features on Kindle Fire tablets. "The Ivona team shares our passion for innovation and customer obsession," Amazon Kindle vice president Dave Limp said in a release. "We look forward to building great products to deliver world-class voice solutions to customers around the world." Founded in 2001 by fellow graduates of Gdansk University of Technology, Ivona now touts a client list that includes thousands of business and software developers around the world. "For more than ten years, the Ivona team has been focused on creating innovative text-to-speech technologies," said co-founder and chief executive Lukasz Osowski. "We are all thrilled that Amazon is supporting our growth." Kindle Fire competes in a booming tablet arena with rivals including Apple and Google.