Microsoft completed its $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance, an AI speech recognition company, that aims to expand Microsoft's cloud services to the healthcare industry.
The deal, which was announced April 12, was cleared by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which was the final step the companies needed in order to merge. Officials in the U.S., Australia and the European Union signed off on the deal last year.
Nuance, which currently provides tools for recognizing and transcribing speech in physician visits, voicemails and more, will collaborate with Microsoft to accelerate the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare initiative that was announced in 2020.
By combining the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare with Nuance’s medical dictation and transcription tools, Microsoft aims to extend ambient clinical intelligence and other Microsoft cloud services to the healthcare industry.
"Completion of this significant and strategic acquisition brings together Nuance's best-in-class conversational AI and ambient intelligence with Microsoft's secure and trusted industry cloud offerings," Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and AI Group at Microsoft said in the release. "This powerful combination will help providers offer more affordable, effective and accessible healthcare, and help organizations in every industry create more personalized and meaningful customer experiences."
Nuance is known for its voice-based artificial intelligence technology that was instrumental in helping to power Apple’s Siri.