Nuance Communications is a speech recognition company responsible for voice technology found in phones and other devices. The company is reportedly looking for a buyer, with Samsung Electronics being the most likely.
While the name Nuance Communications may not sound familiar to you, the devices that contain the company’s technology certainly will. The company’s speech recognition software is currently found in Samsung’s S-Voice and Apple’s Siri applications.
It is unclear if the companies are still in acquisition talks, but if the deal goes through, it will be interesting to see how the deal affects Samsung’s largest competitor, Apple. The two companies certainly haven’t been getting along recently and it would certainly be a big blow to Apple if Samsung were to deny the use of Nuance’s technology in Siri.
While gaining a competitive edge could be a possible reason for Samsung’s interest, another could be the fact that Samsung has been looking to be more independent from Google and other large companies for awhile now.
Currently valued at $5.5 billion, Nuance Communications could be a valuable asset for Samsung as it looks to break away from Android and provide both the software and hardware for its future devices.
source: The Wall Street Journal
