Veterinarians and dog owners have lost their Voyce. Intersections Inc. shut down Voyce, its pet health monitoring business, on Dec. 1 after failing to attract a buyer for the subsidiary. The announcement came two days after an investment company, Loeb Holding Corp., withdrew a takeover proposal. Voyce, a computerized collar that monitors a dog’s vital signs and activity, was introduced in 2014. Voyce Pro, a service that allowed veterinarians to track a patient’s well-being away from the clinic, followed in July 2015. The member website and technical support will be available until Dec. 13, said Ron Barden, CFO of Chantilly, Va.-based Intersections. Some subscribers will be reimbursed. “We will refund fees paid by customers for any services that have not been rendered,” Barden said. “We will also refund the purchase price of the monitor for those customers who purchased one after Oct. 1, 2016.” Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Voyce was awash in red ink. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2016, Voyce lost $6.4 million. The quarterly loss a year earlier was $4.7 million. “Efforts at Voyce have taken longer than expected, and the time required to introduce such a breakthrough technology to the veterinary market was greater than anticipated,” Intersections CEO Michael Stanfield said in a prepared statement. The company added that enrollment “was slower than expected and therefore the Voyce business was unable to achieve an acceptable level of revenue.” Remaining in the space are competitors such as PetPace, Whistle, Tagg and Fitbark.
