cross pond high tech

Microsoft acquired the AI speech technology company Nuance for $19.7B, its second-largest purchase after it bought LinkedIn for $26B in 2016. Microsoft reportedly wants to use Nuance's tech — which includes the transcription tool Dragon — in its health-care cloud products.

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• The all-cash deal is expected to boost Microsoft's voice recognition and medical computing capabilities and offerings.
• Dragon uses deep learning to transcribe a person's speech and improve its accuracy by adapting to their voice. It can transcribe doctor's visits, customer service calls, and voicemails.
• Nuance has been licensing the technology to companies for years. The tech formed part of the basis for Apple's Siri, which could pose as a conflict of interest between the companies if it is still involved in Siri's operation.
• In 2019, Microsoft and Nuance announced a partnership to incorporate AI assistants into doctors' visits. They later integrated Nuance's tech into Microsoft’s Teams.
• The tech giant plans to implement Nuance into its cloud-based health-tech products launched in 2020, such as patient monitoring systems, electronic healthcare records, and care coordination.
• The acquisition could also allow Microsoft to integrate advanced voice recognition into services including Teams and Bing and generate transcripts, according to Bloomberg analysts.
• Microsoft will purchase Nuance for $56 per share, a 23% premium over its closing price Friday.