Nuance buys British voice-to-text company SpinVox

US speech recognition company Nuance Communications Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has acquired British voice-to-text firm SpinVox for 102.5 million dollars in a stock and cash deal.

The Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance said in a statement that the transaction involves 66 million dollars in cash and 36.5 million dollars, or approximately 2.3 million shares, in Nuance common stock.

SpinVox provides voice-to-text services to telecommunications companies, converting voicemails into SMS or email messages, for example.

Its clients include Alltel, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, TELUS, Movistar, Optus, Vodacom, Vodafone Spain, Telstra, Skype and others.

"By integrating SpinVox's carrier services with Nuance's advanced speech recognition platform, Nuance will further accelerate the growth of its voice-to-text business," Nuance said in a statement.

"Around the world, the voice-to-text market has experienced tremendous growth over the last year," said John Pollard, a Nuance vice president.

"With SpinVox's robust infrastructure, language support and operational experience, we will broaden the reach and capabilities of our platform," he said.

(c) 2009 AFP