Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to buy a company of artificial intelligence and speech technology Nuance Communications Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
An agreement could be announced immediately this week, said people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The price discussed could value Nuance at about $ 56 per share, although the terms could still change, said one person.
It would capitalize on Nuance’s capital, which laid the groundwork for the technology used in Apple Siri’s voice software, at about $ 16 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The price would be a premium of 23% until the closing on Friday for Nuance.
Discussions are ongoing and talks could still fall apart, people said.
A Microsoft representative declined to comment. A Nuance spokesman based in Burlington, Massachusetts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nuance shares rose 3.4% this year, giving the company a market value of nearly $ 13 billion, but still following the 9.9% jump in the S&P 500 index. Microsoft rose 15%.
Microsoft, with a market value of over $ 1.93 trillion, remains active on the front. Last month, Bloomberg News reported that the software giant is in talks to buy Discord Inc., a video chat community for over $ 10 billion. Also bought video game maker Zenimax Media Inc. for $ 7.5 billion in cash in a transaction this year.
A deal for Nuance would rank as Microsoft’s second largest acquisition, behind just $ 24 billion The transaction LinkedIn Corp. in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Microsoft and Nuance have has been collaborating on technologies since 2019 to do things like allow doctors to capture voice conversations from patient visits and enter data into electronic medical records.