Microsoft buys Siri speech recognition partner Nuance in $19.7B deal
Microsoft has acquired speech recognition systems company Nuance in an all-cash deal valued at $19.7 billion, giving it control over the firm that helped Apple process Siri queries.
Following initial reports over the weekend that talks were underway, Microsoft revealed on Monday that it had in fact reached a deal with Nuance. The deal, which will be for $56 per share, represents a 23% premium on Nuance's closing price from Friday.
While the deal was speculated to give Nuance a valuation in the region of $16 billion, the actual all-cash transaction will be valued at $19.7 billion according to Microsoft, taking into account Nuance's net debt. Existing Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin will stay in his role, and will report to Microsoft's Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud & AI.
The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2021, pending any regulatory or shareholder clearances. Once completed, it will be Microsoft's second-largest acquisition, following its 2016 purchase of LinkedIn for $24 billion.
Microsoft is still working on other acquisitions, and is believed to be in talks to buy game-centric communications platform Discord. That acquisition is rumored to be valued in excess of $10 billion.
Nuance is best known for its voice recognition systems, which allow computers to interpret speech into text for later processing. The company's technology was a fundamental component of Apple's digital assistant Siri, which Nuance confirmed in 2013, though it is unclear how the relationship between the companies fares years later.
Microsoft's interest in Nuance is framed by the companies as a health-centric one, including Nuance's experience as a "provider of conversational AI and cloud-based ambient clinical intelligence for healthcare providers." This includes working with electronic health records and operating many of its services using Microsoft Azure.
It is claimed that Nuance is being used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the United States, and 77% of U.S. hospitals.
Microsoft claims it will augment its Cloud for Healthcare offering with Nuance's products to "empower healthcare providers through the power of ambient clinical intelligence and other Microsoft cloud services."
Away from healthcare, Nuance's technology may be incorporated into Microsoft's Azure, Teams, and Dynamics 365 platforms.
"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."
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Following initial reports over the weekend that talks were underway, Microsoft revealed on Monday that it had in fact reached a deal with Nuance. The deal, which will be for $56 per share, represents a 23% premium on Nuance's closing price from Friday.
While the deal was speculated to give Nuance a valuation in the region of $16 billion, the actual all-cash transaction will be valued at $19.7 billion according to Microsoft, taking into account Nuance's net debt. Existing Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin will stay in his role, and will report to Microsoft's Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud & AI.
The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2021, pending any regulatory or shareholder clearances. Once completed, it will be Microsoft's second-largest acquisition, following its 2016 purchase of LinkedIn for $24 billion.
Microsoft is still working on other acquisitions, and is believed to be in talks to buy game-centric communications platform Discord. That acquisition is rumored to be valued in excess of $10 billion.
Nuance is best known for its voice recognition systems, which allow computers to interpret speech into text for later processing. The company's technology was a fundamental component of Apple's digital assistant Siri, which Nuance confirmed in 2013, though it is unclear how the relationship between the companies fares years later.
Microsoft's interest in Nuance is framed by the companies as a health-centric one, including Nuance's experience as a "provider of conversational AI and cloud-based ambient clinical intelligence for healthcare providers." This includes working with electronic health records and operating many of its services using Microsoft Azure.
It is claimed that Nuance is being used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the United States, and 77% of U.S. hospitals.
Microsoft claims it will augment its Cloud for Healthcare offering with Nuance's products to "empower healthcare providers through the power of ambient clinical intelligence and other Microsoft cloud services."
Away from healthcare, Nuance's technology may be incorporated into Microsoft's Azure, Teams, and Dynamics 365 platforms.
"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."
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
The issue with Siri has never been the actual speech recognition part of the story, but lack of contextual intelligence. Does your comment imply that you expect Microsoft to accomplish more with Nuance’s technology than Apple managed?
Though I've been pretty happy with Siri and most of "her" assistance so far, she definitely has her limitations.
But, just yesterday, when trying to chat on Apple's site, having a question about a product return, I bumped into its AI which was, in my case, pretty stupid. It kept giving automated responses I didn't want. Only after I typed in frustration, "Go away. Give me a live person!" did it comply!
I can see AI's potential value in gathering and collating data in an assistive sense. But AI is only capable of looking into the past, however granularly, and it will NEVER be able to actually PREDICT the future or come up with original ideas. That's the realm of live beings, only!
AI systems may be quite useful, but only if given tasks they're properly suited for.
and the person writing actually has no clue. It’s not unclear, it’s unknown.
Dragon Dictate has never really been that well integrated on the Mac, is a little better on Windows and has largely been forced upon Physicians by hospitals and practice groups looking to be rid of transcriptionists.
Disagree. I rarely have an issue with Siri and I use it all the time.
Siri has been getting better ... immensely better. Siri is fantastic right now.
Quite often, the problem that people have is "recognition" of what they are saying. And the problems can be attributed to (a) muffled speaking, (b) too much background noise, (c) Siri having difficulty with certain accents.
The ability of Siri to respond to requests — once it understands the request — is stellar.
But yes, any market pressure is welcomed. Apple just didn't need any. They compete with themselves.
Ambient in this case means "ACI uses ambient sensing technology to securely listen to clinician‑patient encounter conversations while offering workflow and knowledge automation to complement the EHR. Exceeding the capabilities of a virtual or on‑site scribe, the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX), innovated by Nuance and Microsoft, promotes a better patient experience by accurately capturing and appropriately contextualizing every word of the patient encounter and automatically documenting patient care without taking the physician's attention off the patient."
Basically advanced transcribing of conversations and possibly looking up information/documentation while the conversation is ongoing. Saves time.
Intelligence: Our self image…
Clinical: We also monitor your patients. And your coworkers.
Securely (from previous post): End-user not able to deactivate.
—in essence: A treasure trove of unlimited information worth multiple times the sales price 😵💫🤭
I have long hoped that Apple would buy Nuance and integrate this technology. Perhaps it wasn’t feasible for technical reasons. Now Microsoft has it.
I have no doubt that Siri will catch up, but now she will have to go much further to do so. That’s good for everyone, though, because we will all end up with better products.
EDIT: I have a MacBook that I take to work and can attest that davgreg is correct when he says Dragon is not well integrated on the Mac. I got it working once, with much effort and jumping through hoops, but the next update killed it on the Mac. Now I just use the Windows machines at all the work areas for the actual dictation.