Nuance buys British to expand voice-to-text services
SpinVox acquired in $102m deal.
By Agam Shah | Published: 05:51, 01 January 2010
Voice recognition software company Nuance Communications has bought voice-to-text services company Spinvox.
UK-based Spinvox provides technology that converts voice messages to text, which can then be sent as e-mail messages or posted on blogs or social networking sites. Nuance will implement Spinvox's technology into its speech recognition platform, Nuance said in a statement.
Nuance is best known for the popular Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, which allows users to create documents or email messages through dictation. But the company also provides technology to convert voice messages to text, which can then be sent to users as SMS or e-mail messages. Nuance's voice-to-text customers include AT&T, and the company earlier this year expanded its mobile product portfolio by acquiring companies including Jott and Zi.
The acquisition of Spinvox will help Nuance voice-to-text services reach a larger customer base worldwide and support more languages, Nuance said. The combined company will support voice-to-text services in languages including English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, and Portuguese.
The deal, worth $102.5 million, won't affect current Spinvox customers, Spinvox said in a blog post.
"Spinvox voice-to-text services will remain unchanged - you can continue enjoying the benefits of reading your voicemails as text or speaking your voice-to-text SMS messages, e-mails, blog posts or social network updates anywhere you happen to be," SpinVox wrote in the post. SpinVox's current customers include telecommunication carriers worldwide.
