Microsoft Reportedly Closing in on Nuance Acquisition

EDIT – Microsoft has now confirmed that the deal has been agreed pending legal paperwork.

Microsoft has certainly been more than little busy over the last month with rumours and confirmation of deals coming from practically every angle you could conceive. For example, last month reports began to emerge that Microsoft was drawing very close to a deal to formally purchase Discord while, a few weeks later, it was also confirmed that a contract with the US Army just netted them rather cool $22BN. In something definitely taking a significant turn towards the technological, however, following a report via Engadget, Microsoft is now seemingly coming close in concluding the acquisition of AI voice recognition giant ‘Nuance’.

Microsoft to Acquire Nuance?

So, who are Nuance? Well, you’ll be forgiven for not knowing much, if anything, about them directly as they are a company that largely specializes in voice recognition AI technology for primary usage within the medical sector. Citing leaked internal information, however, the source claims that Microsoft is not only interested in acquiring Nuance simply for this aspect of their business (albeit, it’s hard to deny the money that can be earned in medical contracts), but also in potentially being able to translate some of that AI voice recognition software onto their own platforms such as Windows 10 for example.

When Will We Know More?

Microsoft is seemingly exceptionally keen to secure the deal in order to bring this Nuance’s technology under their company umbrella. It is understood that they first became aware of it after a collaboration with the company as part of an integration of the AI into their Cloud storage system and, were so impressed, that they decided to make a few enquiries.

As things currently stand though, it’s believed that that while talks are seemingly still underway, an acquisition fee of $16BN has already been agreed and a formal announcement may be confirmed before the end of the month!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!