Smartling Acquires VerbalizeIt

Smartling has acquired VerbalizeIt to augment its enterprise translation management platform with translation capabilities for audio, video, and other multimedia content. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is Smartling's second acquisition in the translation and localization market this year. In April, the company acquired Jargon.

VerbalizeIt is a New York-based technology startup delivering human-powered translation services to hundreds of businesses worldwide. In addition to integrating its software into the Smartling platform, VerbalizeIt's co-founders, Ryan Frankel and Kunal Sarda, will take on leadership roles within the company. Frankel is tasked with developing channel and partnership alliances, while Sarda will focus on the product experience for customers and translators.

"Smartling's acquisition of VerbalizeIt brings together two world-class technology companies and a leadership lineup of entrepreneurs unrivaled in the industry," said Jack Welde, co-founder and CEO of Smartling, in a statement. "By joining forces, we're taking the language services industry by storm. We now offer the most comprehensive enterprise translation management platform on the market today. No other company can help ambitious brands access new markets, reach more customers, and provide greater value than we can."

With the acquisition, brands can now extend these same translation management capabilities to multimedia sources. Audio and video files can be transcribed and translated. Companies can make their media content more searchable, accessible, and engaging for global audiences with localized captions and subtitles. And, in addition to multimedia translation, VerbalizeIt also offers live interpretation services.

"Technology should enable human-to-human connections, not impede or replace them," Frankel said in a statement. "From small translation projects to large-scale international expansions, we enable companies to deliver localized content and personalized experiences across channels that resonate with multilingual audiences. This acquisition is a win for current Smartling and VerbalizeIt customers, as well as for those businesses with language translation initiatives on the horizon."

Smartling is already working to incorporate VerbalizeIt's technology into its enterprise translation management platform and expects the integration to be completed in Q3 2016.

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