I talk to lots of VCs. However, lately they have been fairly glum.

It's been a long drought since the dot-com implosion.

But, there are signs that things are improving. An example is Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) buyout of Tellme.

According to a report from Red Herring, it looks like the deal was a big score for Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The investors got into the deal during the heady days of 1999. The round was about $47 million.

OK, so what was the return? It looks like about 6X to 8X. That's pretty good considering that there are many 1999 deals that are zeros.

No doubt, it's still going to take time for the VC business to get its footing. But, I have a feeling that within about five years or so it's going to be cool to be a VC again.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Yesterday, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that it is purchasing Tellme Networks, which develops voice-recognition technologies. The price tag was not disclosed but the rumor is that it was $800 million (this is according to The Wall Street Journal, which is a paid service).

To get some perspective on the deal, I was able to interview Dipanshu Sharma, who is the founder of V-Enable. He is an expert on mobile search and even has some patents on the topic.

What's the background on V-Enable?

V-ENABLE, Inc. is the leading provider of mobile voice search and mobile directory assistance solutions, offering the fastest and most accurate voice search available in the mobile environment. V-ENABLE's patented voice search coupled with text-based user interface technology allows mobile users to simply input and search using their voice and receive personalized content and information on their phone. No more complicated menus to navigate or triple tap typing required.

Last year I received an email inviting me "to take part in a revolutionary new search engine." I was offered to be a guide at ChaCha, a new search engine that uses human guides to help users find what they want. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos invested $6.5 million in ChaCha. Today, with 30,000 guides (I never signed up) and expecting 300,000 by June, the founder, Scott Jones, is taking ChaCha one step further -- his goal is to make ChaCha the search engine of choice for cell-phone users.

ChaCha will be available at a toll-free number, with easy searches handled by voice-recognition software and more complicated ones going to ChaCha guides. The guides will enter the results of their searches into a voice-recognition database for future users. While users wait for the guide, voice ads will be played. According to Jones, cell-phone providers will replace 411 services with ChaCha by 2010.

While Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the obvious name each time Internet search is mentioned, ChaCha may actually see competition from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT). After a few days of rumors, Microsoft said it will buy Tellme Networks Inc., a provider of voice-enabled mobile search, directory assistance and computerized, speech-driven customer service hotlines.

Microsoft's plans for Tellme's technology are vast and not limited to mobile search but to applications for the home (operating the TV for example), car (getting directions for the nearest gas station) and Microsoft Office applications as well. If one day this technology works smoothly, Google and others would have some catching up to do.

I've always seen voice-activation as the natural progress of current technology and even wondered in the past if Microsoft wouldn't indeed be the one to bring it to successful fruition. Today, we are one step closer.

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• According to the Wall Street Journal's (subscription required) "Heard on the Street" column, JP Morgan Chase and Company (NYSE: JPM) is working on its growth without acquisitions, by bulking up its Hollywood business and its pension-advisory business.
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• CNet.com has learned that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is close to acquiring privately held Tellme Networks, which a deal expected to be completed later this week.
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