Speech and imaging solutions provider Nuance Communications announced its acquisition of Time Warner AOL subsidiary Tegic Communications, which develops embedded software for mobile devices. Total consideration: about $265 million in cash. The deal adds Tegic's T9 predictive text and multimodal input solutions to Nuance's existing portfolio of voice-enabled applications for mobile device control, search, email and text messaging--according to Nuance, it will deliver an all-in-one interface that integrates their respective solutions to support predictive text, speech and touch input. In addition to a partnership dating to 2005, the two firms also share a number of common customers and affiliations, most notably Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola.
The deal is expected to close in Nuance's fiscal fourth quarter. "The enhanced capabilities of mobile devices and networks have fueled significant innovation in features and services, but their potential has been tempered by the traditional interface on most mobile devices," said Nuance chairman and CEO Paul Ricci in a prepared statement. "Tegic shares our vision of delivering an integrated, superior and flexible user experience for today's wireless subscribers. Together, we are poised to redefine the way people interact with their mobile devices, delivering a more convenient, simple way for consumers to control features and access information on their phones, and search and navigate the mobile Web."
For more on the Nuance/Tegic deal:
- read this release [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/node/10000