Nuance Buys Philips' Speech Apps

HDM Breaking News, October 1, 2008

Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance Communications has significantly expanded its European market by acquiring Philips Speech Recognition Systems, a unit of Amsterdam-based Royal Philips Electronics.

Under acquisition terms totaling $96.1 million, Nuance has paid one-third of the cost and will pay the remaining two-thirds in September 2009. The majority of Philips' speech recognition market is in Europe, where it has more than 8,000 installations of its SpeechMagic application, according to the vendors. About 25% of the business is in North America.

Nuance will add SpeechMagic to its existing product line led by the Dragon Medical and PowerScribe applications. It will continue to support all SpeechMagic customers and vendor partners. The acquisition will add $36 million to $39 million in revenue during fiscal 2009 with additional earnings per share of flat to one cent, the company projects.

Philips sold the speech recognition unit to focus on the core diagnostic and therapeutic products and services of its Philips Healthcare division. More information is available at nuance.com.

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