Nuance acquires SpinVox for $102.5M

Nuance Communications agreed to acquire SpinVox in a year-end deal for $102.5 million. Nuance said the acquisition, which had been rumored for weeks, would help it accelerate its voice-to-text business.

The deal, which includes $66 million in cash and $36.5 million, or about 2.3 million shares, in common stock, came after several reports in December linking Nuance to SpinVox. Nuance, which sells speech-recognition software, was reported to have been in negotiations with SpinVox for weeks.

Nuance, in a release, said that the deal "marries innovative speech solutions and robust carrier-grade infrastructure to accelerate innovation, and deliver these voice-to-text services to global subscribers." The company said the deal would help it expand and improve service quality, its global reach and technological innovation in general.

SpinVox powers voice-to-text services for the likes of Alltel, Bell Mobility, Telefonica Mexico and others. In July, the BBC reported that much of the company's transcription was being done by humans in call centers around the world. SpinVox countered that its technology only relies on humans if necessary, and then only in an anonymous, encrypted and random way.

For more:
- see this release
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this Bloomberg article

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