Microsoft has confirmed that the company is buying AI speech tech firm Nuance for $19.7 billion. This is an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 billion. Microsoft will pay $56.00 per share. Mark Benjamin will remain the CEO of Nuance and will report to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud & AI at Microsoft.
Last year, Microsoft announced Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. This deal seems a way to accelerate the growth of that division.
Nuance is best known for its Dragon software, which uses deep learning to transcribe speech. It also uses AI to improve its accuracy over time by adapting to a user’s voice. The company also boasts 10,000 healthcare customers on its portfolio. Nuance has a presence in 27 countries and has over 6,000 employees. It reported $352.9 million in revenue in Q4 2020.
“Nuance provides the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery and is a pioneer in the real-world application of enterprise AI,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “AI is technology’s most important priority, and healthcare is its most urgent application. Together, with our partner ecosystem, we will put advanced AI solutions into the hands of professionals everywhere to drive better decision-making and create more meaningful connections, as we accelerate growth of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and Nuance.”
Microsoft already has speech-to-text services in Windows and on Azure. It also has some chatbot products. But the company thought to acquire a market leader trusted by a big customer base.
This is Microsoft’s second-biggest acquisition since buying LinkedIn. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016 for $26 billion.
Source: Microsoft
