In addition to the many large deals the company has signed up to offer its customers an extended range of software tools, Microsoft has agreed to buy speech recognition firm Nuance Communications Inc. for $19.7billion. Microsoft acquires Nuance in a $19.7 billion deal after it agreed to pay $56 a share of Nuance in the all-cash deal, 23 per cent of the closing price of Nuance on Friday 9th April 2021.
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It was reported that the two companies were holding talks about acquisition over the weekend. Microsoft acquires Nuance in an acquisition deal that is said to be the second-largest in Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella after spending approximately $26 billion in 2016 for LinkedIn professional network.
The firm said this concerns an increase in the vertical presence of Nuance in the field of health care in recent years. In fact, last year the company announced that the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is going to be in place more quickly. In this area, Nuance’s products include Dragon Ambient eXperience, Dragon Medical One and PowerScribe One for radiology reporting.
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Microsoft acquires Nuance in a $19.7 billion deal which will enhance its voice recognition capability
Microsoft acquires Nuance in a deal that it says builds upon the successful existing partnership between the companies that was announced in 2019. By adding Nuance’s solutions to Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and enhancing the expertise and relationships of Nuance with EHR systems service providers, the power of environmental clinical information and other cloud services will enable Microsoft to empower healthcare providers.
The acquisition will double Microsoft’s total addressable market (TAM) in the healthcare provider space, bringing the company’s TAM in healthcare to nearly $500 billion. In addition to the highest standards of privacy, security and conformity, Nuance, and Microsoft will strengthen their existing commitments to a larger partner ecosystem.
Nuance was a pioneer in voice recognition and artificial intelligence technology-based in Burlington, Mass and its software formed the basis for the Siri Voice Assistant at Apple Inc.
Nuance currently has 6,000 employees spread across 27 countries. In its most recent earnings report from November 2020, which was for Q42020, the company reported $352.9 million in revenue compared to $387.6 million in the same period a year prior.
According to CNBC, it’s the latest sign Microsoft is hunting for more growth through acquisitions. The company is also reportedly in talks to buy the chat app Discord for about $10 billion. On top of that, Microsoft made an effort to buy TikTok’s U.S. business last year for about $30 billion before the deal was derailed.
The Nuance acquisition represents Microsoft’s largest acquisition since it bought LinkedIn for more than $26 billion in 2016. Last month, Microsoft completed its $7.6 billion acquisition of gaming company Zenimax.
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