Nuance Communications

Nuance Communications, Inc. ( Nasdaq: NUAN ) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for business and private customers worldwide. Sales in fiscal 2012 were $ 1.7 billion. At 35 locations and in 16 international subsidiaries over 12,000 employees. Headquartered in Burlington ( Massachusetts) in the United States.

Company History

In March 1999, has taken visioneer Xerox ScanSoft after their area of ​​hardware at Primax electronics Ltd.. had sold. Then changed the company name to visioneer ScanSoft and was in the following years to become a leading provider of digital imaging solutions. In 2001, ScanSoft has done by buying parts from Lernout & Hauspie the first step in the field of speech processing. Further acquisitions, among others, Philips Speech Processing (2002), Speech Works ( 2003) and Rhetorical Systems Ltd. (2004) followed. The business unit speech processing had become at that time as important as the original mainstay image processing. The clearest sign of changing priorities was the change of name to Nuance Communications after the purchase of Nuance 2005. Growth through acquisitions has continued, with Dictaphone (2006) the professional Diktiersektor developed.

Products

The company creates and sells software mainly consists of two areas - the image and speech processing. In image processing, digitizing existing in company documents and creating PDF files dominates. The language processing is divided into hardware- and PC -based, in speech recognition, speech synthesis and speaker verification solutions. It should again be distinguished solutions in speech recognition between speaker-independent and speaker-dependent ( dictation ). The company is divided into the following three product-focused business units:

  • Image processing
  • Language processing
  • Dictation
  • Text on 9 keys, in 2007 through the acquisition of Tegic Communications Inc.
  • Swype, an input method for smartphones, 2011 by by taking Swype Inc.

Torsten Brand Price

Since 2011 Nuance donates Torsten Brand Award for projects and technical solutions, the blind and partially sighted people to make life easier.

Competing competitors

  • IBM WebSphere Voice Server
  • Microsoft Speech Server
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