Microsoft bought Nuance, the company behind Siri. The issue price was almost $ 20 billion

Microsoft has officially announced the purchase of Nuance Communications.

Who is it?

Nuance is an American

technology company headquarteredin Burlington (Massachusetts). It was founded almost 30 years ago, and is now one of the market leaders in cloud technology and AI. First of all, Nuance has developed SaaS offerings for speech recognition in clinical practice, built on Microsoft Azure. Currently, the company's products are used by more than 55% of doctors and 75% of radiologists in the United States, as well as 77% of American hospitals.

Moreover, at one time Nuance developed technology that was later bought by Apple and used for its virtual assistant Siri.

At the end of the 2020 financial year (ended in September), Nuance's revenue grew by 37%, and net profit amounted to $91 million.

Terms of a transaction

Microsoft had to pay 23% above marketThe company's value is $19.7 billion. That's $56 per share. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year, subject to regulatory approval.

However, Mark Benjamin will remainexecutive director of Nuance, but will report to executive vice president of cloud and AI at Microsoft, Scott Guthrie. Microsoft notes that the purchase will improve its position in the healthcare field and expand the capabilities of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offerings.

By the way, this is the second largest Microsoft deal. The only thing that cost her more was the purchase of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016.

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