Fierce Health Payers April 12, 2021
Microsoft plans to buy speech recognition company Nuance Communications for $19.7 billion to expand its reach into healthcare.
The software giant will buy Nuance for $56 per share, about 23% above its closing price Friday. The all-cash deal is worth about $16 billion and about $19 billion including debt.
It’s Microsoft’s second-largest acquisition, behind the $26.2 billion deal for LinkedIn in 2016.
Nuance, based in Burlington, Mass., is considered a pioneer in speech recognition and artificial intelligence technology used in healthcare. The company’s technology is used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the U.S., and used in 77% of U.S. hospitals, according to the company in a press release.
The company saw revenue for its...