Sunday, May 22, 2011

Nuance Plays Hardball in Voice Recognition - BusinessWeek

Excerpt from a profile of not-so-nuanced (at least in terms of business modus operandi) Nuance

When rumors swirled on May 7 that Apple (AAPL) might acquire Nuance Communications (NUAN), shares of the software company rose 10 percent to $22, within pennies of an all-time high. The assumption was that Steve Jobs gets what Steve Jobs wants.

A safe bet—unless you know Nuance Chief Executive Officer Paul Ricci. In speech-recognition technology, which Nuance dominates, the soft-spoken Ricci is considered every bit as powerful as Jobs. Since leaving Xerox (XRX) to join the company in 2000, Ricci has bought 43 companies to build the largest independent maker of software that lets devices understand you as you dictate a memo to your laptop, say, or tell your smartphone to find the nearest sushi bar.

Nuance Plays Hardball in Voice Recognition - BusinessWeek

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