Microsoft to acquire Nuance Communications for $ 19.7 billion

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Microsoft is accelerating in healthcare, and in order to advance its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) offerings for its healthcare customers, Gafam’s “M” is ready to shell out nearly $ 20 billion for its ‘offer Nuance Communications.

The offer was set at $ 56 per share – with “an all-cash transaction” -, also including Nuance’s debt. It has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of Nuance and Microsoft.

The transaction is now subject to the approval of Nuance shareholders and should be concluded “by the end of the year”, after validation by the relevant regulatory authorities.

Founded in 1994, Nuance Communications is the pioneer of cloud-based conversational AI for healthcare professionals. Its Dragon Ambient eXperience, Dragon Medical One and PowerScribe One solutions for radiology reporting, all already rely on the Microsoft Azure cloud.

“AI is the priority in health. Together, with our ecosystem of partners, we will put advanced AI solutions in the hands of healthcare professionals around the world to foster better decision-making,” said Satya Nadella. , CEO of Microsoft in a blog post.

The Microsoft CEO also hopes to “accelerate the growth of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and Nuance”, projections achievable since Nuance solutions are currently used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the United States, in 77% of American hospitals. Nuance Healthcare Cloud’s revenue also grew by 37% in 2020.

“Over the past three years, Nuance has streamlined its portfolio to focus on the healthcare and AI segments, where demand has accelerated for advanced conversational AI,” explained the CEO of Nuance, Mark Benjamin, cited in blog post.

The acquisition will allow the American giant to advance its cloud-based tools for health and double its addressable market in the sector: which could eventually reach nearly $ 500 billion.

On the governance side, Mark Benjamin will continue to serve as CEO of Nuance, under the leadership of Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of cloud and AI at Microsoft.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance is a continuation of a pre-existing collaboration between the two companies. As a reminder, in October 2019, the company specializing in voice recognition and healthcare transcription software, and the American giant had entered into a partnership to support the digital transformation of medical documentation.

This alliance was supposed to make it possible “to accelerate the arrival of ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) technologies”, in particular with a view to equipping “the examination rooms of the future in which medical documentation can be written on its own”. , explained the two partners.

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