Microsoft has completed a $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications, a speech recognition technology and software company. Just two days ago, the regulatory formalities related to the acquisition were completed. The acquisition was announced in April of last year, but the process took longer than expected due to the increased interest of government departments in acquisitions among technology companies.
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Nuance, which has already developed the Apple Siri voice assistant, is headquartered in Boston, USA, but has a strong presence on the west coast of the country – in Seattle, where many companies have themselves absorbed, including VoiceBox, Swype, Tweddle, Varolii and Gott . Last year, it also acquired Seattle-based startup Saikara, which is developing a voice assistant for healthcare facilities. Microsoft said the acquisition of Nuance will facilitate the creation of new solutions that combine voice interface, artificial intelligence algorithms and cloud technologies for various industries, including healthcare, retail, telecommunications and the financial sector.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled last week (PDF) that the deal “creates no realistic prospect of a significant reduction in competition”. The European Union approved the acquisition last December, and US regulators had no doubts in June. At the time of the announcement, this deal was supposed to be the second in Microsoft’s history after its 2016 acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. However, in January, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard was announced for $68.7 billion, which of course will also raise many questions from regulators around the world.
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Healthcare will be a priority for Nuance at Microsoft. “We are committed to delivering new and innovative AI solutions that make healthcare more personalized, efficient, accessible and affordable, and continue to improve the experience for patients and healthcare professionals,” Mark, CEO of Nuance, wrote in a blog post. Subscribe to Microsoft Corporate Blog Benjamin (Mark Benjamin) and Scott Guthrie, Vice President of Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft.
Mark Benjamin will remain CEO of Nuance at Microsoft, reporting directly to Guthrie, a model similar to the LinkedIn acquisition, when the software giant’s combined company continued to operate with a degree of independence. As of September last year, Nuance had 6,900 employees. The company’s financial results will now be announced in the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud section. Nuance reported a net loss of $26.7 million on revenue of $812 million in its most recent fiscal year.
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