Report: Samsung Mulling Nuance Buy for Speech Recognition

Korean device manufacturer Samsung is among a group of suitors that have looked at buying voice recognition developer Nuance Communications (NUAN), according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Nuance makes speech recognition software deployed in smartphones, GPS navigation devices and televisions. It’s also heavily involved the speech-to-text conversion prevalent in legal, medical and other similar document-creation segments. The company’s largest shareholder is activist investor Carl Icahn, who holds 19 percent of its stock as of March 31. Icahn recently boosted his Nuance holdings to 60.8 million shares from 58.9 million issues worth some $30.46 billion. Two Icahn-backed representatives sit on Nuance’s board of directors.

Sources cited by the Journal named Samsung but no other possible buyers, although a number of private equity firms are said also to have been involved in early discussions with the Burlington, Massachusetts-based developer. At this point, it’s unclear how far any of the talks have progressed or even if a deal is in the offing.

Nuance’s stock has jumped nearly 10 percent from a $17.10 close on Friday, June 13, to end trading on Monday, June 16, at $18.76. Its market capitalization now stands at $5.97 billion, up from the $5.5 billion valuation before news of the acquisition talks surfaced.

The company’s advantageous positioning in the booming mobile segment and emerging wearables market adds luster to its positioning for a possible sale. For example, in May, Nuance said it will provide its voice and language offerings for a range of Oracle (ORCL) mobile apps in a multiyear and worldwide agreement. Oracle will use Nuance Cloud Services to add speech recognition and synthesis to certain mobile apps that support Oracle Applications for ERP, SCM, CRM, and HCM, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud Service, Oracle RightNow Cloud Service and Oracle Taleo Cloud Service.

Nuance is a Gold level member in Oracle’s PartnerNetwork program.