Microsoft finalizes its acquisition of Nuance Communications

Almost a year after announcing its purchasing plans, Microsoft has completed its acquisition of Nuance Communications Inc., officials announced on March 4. The deal has been undergoing the normal regulatory scrutiny across the world since Microsoft announced its Nuance acquisition plans in April 2021.

Nuance is an AI company specializing in voice recognition and related software and services. Microsoft paid $19.7 billion for Nuance, making it its third largest acquisition to date, with Activision Blizzard (at $68.7 billion) and LinkedIn (at $26.2 billion) being No. 1 and No. 2.

Although Nuance is best known for its work in the healthcare vertical, it also has a presence in a number of the other top verticals targeted by Microsoft, including financial services, retail and telecommunications. Microsoft plans to use Nuance’s technology to build out more “vertically optimized AI” solutions.

“Customers will benefit from enhanced consumer, patient, clinician and employee experiences, and ultimately improved productivity and financial performance,” said Microsoft’s March 4 press release about the deal’s completion.

Mark Benjamin will remain Nuance’s CEO and report directly to Microsoft Cloud + AI group Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie. 

Microsoft also announced today that Microsoft and Nuance are combining Nuance’s contact center solutions Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Customer Service product to build a secure, AI-infused contact center offering.