This one slipped by my radar but I managed to get to it, almost one month later! This is a pretty significant announcement. Nuance and IBM are the leaders in this space. Nuance has been on an acquisition spree the last several years and its acquisitions/renamings include ScanSoft, VoiceSignal, Lernout & Hauspie, SpeechWorks, BeVocal etc. There has been significant litigation in this area as well.
The Nuance/IBM move will have all the downstream providers/buyers of voice ASRs scrambling to figure out how to dual-source their voice technology or just have two viable options to pit against each other for better pricing/terms. Examples of companies hurt by this move could be server-side consumer portals (e.g. Microsoft's TellMe division, Vlingo, etc.) and automotive OEMs (Nuance and IBM have a very high combined market share here). The only game remaining in the voice ASR space is now outside of the US and Europe.
BURLINGTON, MA and ARMONK, NY, January 15, 2009 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech solutions, and IBM (NYSE: IBM), a pioneer in speech technology, today jointly announced that Nuance and IBM have entered into a licensing and technical services agreement to enhance and expand innovative speech solutions designed to better serve enterprises, consumers, carriers, and partners worldwide.
With the objective of advancing customer access to speech innovation, Nuance and IBM technologists will cooperate to incorporate IBM technology into Nuance’s speech solutions. Nuance expects the first integrated speech innovations combining Nuance and IBM technologies to be available within two years. IBM will continue to serve its own customers. In a second component of the agreement, Nuance will purchase speech-related patents from IBM.
“IBM and Nuance share a vision to proliferate advanced speech capabilities across a broad range of devices and environments,” said Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president and director, IBM Research. “We recognize that Nuance is a leader in the speech marketplace and we believe this technology agreement will accelerate the delivery of speech innovations to the world’s consumers.”
“We are enthusiastic about this strategic relationship with IBM, building on its rich history of speech research to accelerate the creation and adoption of next-generation speech solutions,” said Paul Ricci, chairman and CEO, Nuance. “Through this relationship, we expect to inspire a new level of technical advancement unprecedented in the speech industry from which the customers and partners of both companies will benefit.”
Financial details were not disclosed.
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