MS Agrees to Acquire Nuance for $16 Billion

(Source: Bloomberg)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Microsoft (MS) has agreed to acquire Nuance Communications, an artificial intelligence (AI) and speech recognition technology company, for $16 billion (approximately 18 trillion KRW).

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 12th (local time), MS will acquire Nuance for $16 billion in cash and assume $3.7 billion in debt. The acquisition price per share is $56, reflecting a 23% premium over the closing price on the 9th.

Led by MS CEO Satya Nadella, this acquisition is the second largest merger and acquisition (M&A) in the company's history, following LinkedIn in 2016 ($26.2 billion).

Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Nuance is a leader in the speech recognition field and participated in the launch of Apple's AI personal assistant program, Siri. WSJ also reported that Samsung Electronics had considered acquiring Nuance with a private equity firm in 2014.

Nuance, listed on the NASDAQ, had a stock price of $45.58 on the 9th, up 166% over the past year compared to $17.13 on April 13 last year. Nuance recorded a net profit of $346 million in the fourth quarter of last year and had 7,100 employees as of the end of September last year.