MS in Negotiations to Acquire AI Company Nuance... Second Largest M&A in History

(Source: MarketWatch)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Microsoft (MS) is reportedly in negotiations to acquire Nuance Communications, an artificial intelligence (AI) and speech recognition technology company, Bloomberg News reported on the 11th (local time).

The news agency stated that the acquisition price could be around $16 billion, but since the negotiations have not yet been finalized, the terms may change. The acquisition price reflects a premium of 23% over the closing price on the 9th, at approximately $56 per share.

The negotiations are likely to be concluded within this week and may be announced as early as the 12th. If the deal is completed, it would be MS's second-largest acquisition after LinkedIn in 2016 ($26.2 billion), according to foreign media reports.

Nuance, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, participated in the launch of Apple's AI personal assistant program Siri and possesses application software technologies across various fields, from healthcare to the automotive industry. MS and Nuance have been collaborating in the speech recognition field since 2019.

Nuance is listed on the NASDAQ, and its stock price on the 9th was $45.58, marking a 166% increase over the past year compared to $17.13 on April 13th.