XenaLives
5 years ago
NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS INC. $17 (Nasdaq symbol NUAN; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 285.4 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; No dividends paid; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.nucance.com) specializes in speech and imaging technology. Its systems enable voice-activated services over a telephone by transforming speech into text and allowing users to control devices and software by voice.
The company’s products use several advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and machine learning. Together, they handle about 16 billion self-service transactions a year.
Nuance sells its products through software and hardware vendors, resellers and telecom carriers. It also has its own salesforce and e-commerce website. The U.S. accounts for 70% of its sales.
Nuance Communications:
Based in Burlington, Massachusetts, has 11,600 employees in 80 countries
More than 60 car brands, including the 10 largest carmakers, use Nuance products
90% of U.S. hospitals use its software
The company’s revenue rose just 1.3%, from $1.92 billion in 2014 to $1.95 billion in 2016 (fiscal years end September 30). Revenue then dipped 0.5%, to $1.94 billion in 2017, due to a computer virus (called NotPetya) that infected its systems. Revenue rebounded 5.8% to $2.05 billion in 2018.
Nuance’s losses improved from $0.47 a share (or a total of $150.3 million) in 2014 to $0.04 a share (or $12.5 million) in 2016. With the costs to remove the NotPetya virus, the company’s losses worsened to $0.52 a share (or $151.0 million) in 2017. A writedown increased its losses to $0.55 a share (or $159.9 million) in 2018.
If you exclude all unusual items, the company’s earnings rose 13.3%, from $1.05 a share (or $309.0 million) in 2017 to $1.19 a share (or $351.9 million) in 2018.
In its fiscal 2019 first quarter, ended December 31, 2018, Nuance’s revenue rose 6.5%, to $493.7 million from $463.6 million a year earlier. If you exclude the contribution of acquisitions, revenue improved 2%.
The company continues to shift from selling its software as a one-time purchase to a subscription model. In the latest quarter, recurring revenue accounted for 77% of the total.
Earnings before unusual items jumped 29.6%, to $87.1 million from $67.2 million; due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings gained 30.4%, to $0.30 from $0.23.
Nuance’s research spending rose 3.4% in the quarter, to $68.3 million (or 13.8% of revenue) from $66.1 million (14.8%) a year earlier.
The company ended the quarter with cash of $431.1 million and long-term debt of $2.2 billion, or a somewhat high 45% of its market cap.
As a result of a strategic review, Nuance has agreed to sell its imaging software business for $400 million. It will also spin off its automotive operations, which makes software to run car information/entertainment systems. Nuance shareholders will only be liable for capital gains taxes on those new shares when they sell them. The company expects to complete the spinoff by the end of fiscal 2019.
Nuance will then focus on its health-care and enterprise operations. Its smaller size also adds to its takeover appeal.
Including the automotive business, the company will probably earn $1.23 a share for all of fiscal 2019. The stock trades at a moderate 13.8 times that estimate.
https://www.tsinetwork.ca/daily-advice/spinoffs/upcoming-spinoff-add-to-its-appeal-2/
XenaLives
5 years ago
AI EHR adopted for Canadian-based Northern Health in B.C.
Canadian-Based Northern Health Adopts Nuance AI-powered Dragon Medical One to Revolutionize Care Delivery Across British Columbia
Nuance’s speech recognition platform promotes care team collaboration, improves clinical documentation efficiency and physician mobility at Northern Health
BURLINGTON, Mass. and PRINCE GEORGE, BC, June 5, 2019 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), an industry-leading provider of AI-powered solutions, today announced Canadian-based Northern Health has revolutionized its approach to care delivery with Nuance’s cloud-based Dragon Medical One (DMO) and PowerMic Mobile (PMM).
Northern Health’s leadership team selected Nuance’s innovative technology solutions to support its 1,000 physicians who provide care to more than 300,000 patients annually in northern British Columbia. It was clear the Nuance technology streamlined the documentation process, improved the quality, and provided immediate real-time access to patient documentation.
DMO and PMM serve as an enterprise-wide, front-end speech recognition solution for Northern Health, providing quick and easy documentation within the electronic health record (EHR) to standardize clinical documentation and spur adoption rates across its organization.
“We needed a solution that would help us de-silo the Canadian healthcare system, provide our workforce with an efficient way to accurately capture a patient’s complete story at the point-of-care, and provide an integrated approach across the care continuum—this is where Dragon Medical One was magic,” said Lisa Gregoire, Director of Health Information Management at Northern Health. “Successful implementation across our organization has increased physician confidence to adopt new technologies like speech recognition and has increased our physicians’ ability to effectively direct patient care.”
The Dragon Medical One cloud-based platform offers flexibility and portability, enabling physicians at Northern Health to access patient notes regardless of where they might be working on any given day. Nuance brings the power of speech directly to EHRs to drive Northern Health’s mission to redesign how primary and community care is delivered.
“Because speech recognition is integrated directly into the electronic health record, it’s easier for physicians to provide richer documentation in a timely way,” said William Clifford, MD, Chief Medical Information Officer at Northern Health. “There’s no question, better, faster documentation supports better, safer care.”
“Our solutions redesign the way physicians interact with technology across the world,” said Michael Clark, General Manager of Provider Solutions at Nuance. “We recognize Northern Health as a leader in the industry, paving the road for other organizations in Canada to adopt interoperable innovations to improve the daily routines of physicians and care teams while enhancing the continuity of patient care.”
To read the full Northern Health case study, click here.
https://www.nuance.com/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/2019/Northern-Health-Adopts-Nuance-AI-powered-Dragon-Medical-One-to-Revolutionize-Care-Delivery-Across-British-Columbia.html
chmcnfunds
7 years ago
Morgan Stanley: 3 ‘Strong Buy’ Takeover Targets in Tech
Harriet Lefton April 25, 2018 0 Comments
Morgan Stanley has identified tech companies most likely to get acquired in the next 12 months. Takeovers are on the rise thanks to tax cuts, which frees up cash for deals according to the bank. Indeed, acquisition intensity increased to 3.2% in Q1 from 2.5% in the previous quarter. Why does this matter? Well, share prices can soar when a takeover deal is announced- meaning that there is big value in identifying takeover targets correctly.
From the list, we used TipRanks to identify the top stocks with a bullish Street outlook. All three of the stocks below boast a ‘Strong Buy’ analyst consensus rating. The advantage of these three stocks is that they represent compelling investing opportunities- even if a takeover doesn’t materialize.
As for the methodology, “Our model, ALERT (Acquisition Likelihood Estimate Ranking Tool), combines stock characteristics, cohort membership, and data regarding offers to forecast probabilities that stocks receive tender offers in the coming 12 months,” revealed Brian Hayes, the firm’s global head of quantitative research.
So with this in mind, let’s take a closer look now:
2. Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN)
Nuance- the company that provides the tech for Apple’s Siri, boasts 100% Street support right now. Analysts are projecting, on average, 39% upside potential from current levels. One of these analysts is Oppenheimer’s Shaul Eyal. This top 100 analyst sees big expansion potential for NUAN and explains why here:
The speech market remains relatively under-penetrated, providing significant opportunity to expand market reach. As a stock, NUAN should benefit from the company’s market-leading position and nascent opportunity in speech solutions.
Plus the appointment of a new CEO Mark Benjamin will bring new blood to push NUAN’s long-term strategy. Mark Benjamin is replacing former CEO Paul Ricci.
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https://blog.tipranks.com/morgan-stanley-3-strong-buy-takeover-targets-tech/
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Communications : Announces Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac, version 4
02/03/2015 | 08:09am US/Eastern
Fast and Accurate Speech Recognition Improves Clinician Productivity, Providing More Time for Patient Care
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced the general availability of Dragon® Dictate Medical for Mac®, version 4, a fast and accurate speech recognition solution that enables clinicians to quickly capture comprehensive clinical documentation while spending more time on what matters – their patients. Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac now features improved accuracy and higher performance with an enhanced speech engine designed specifically for clinicians, and supports more than 90 medical specialty and subspecialty vocabularies.
Supporting Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10), Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac streamlines documentation workflow by allowing clinicians to dictate appointment and clinical notes directly into Mac-based electronic health records (EHRs), such as MacPractice, and also use their voice while working within popular web, email and desktop applications such as Microsoft Office or Gmail.
“Clinicians enter the medical field to make a difference in patients’ lives – not to push paper. Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac gives medical professionals back the time in their day to stay focused on patient care,” said Peter Mahoney, Nuance’s chief marketing officer and general manager for Dragon. “Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac is a fast and accurate tool that reduces the daunting task of medical recordkeeping for sole practitioners and small medical offices who see high volumes of patients and need to document care quickly and accurately within their normal workflow.”
Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac adapts to a clinician’s voice and words over time, ensuring greater accuracy of patient details and information. Because speaking is up to three times faster than typing, clinicians can capture important patient and symptom details without checkboxes or dropdown menus, allowing more time for delivering patient care. Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac also gives clinicians the flexibility to add custom words unique to their location or patients, or custom voice commands to execute multiple steps with a simple voice command. And, Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac’s new support for “General English” vocabulary ensures greater accuracy when clinicians dictate on their Mac for documents outside of medical work.
New features include:
Improved accuracy over version 3 for more than 90 medical specialties and subspecialties
Support for OS X Yosemite (10.10), in addition to OS X Mavericks (10.9)
Higher performance and faster editing with pure 64-bit application and improved memory management
Support for full text control of email in Gmail, within Safari and Firefox
Automated voice to text for single-speaker pre-recorded audio files or podcasts with similar accuracy for medical terminology as your own voice recording
Support for “General English” vocabulary
The English version of Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac, version 4, is available immediately for download starting at $999.99 on www.nuance.com. USB flash drives for product installation will be available to ship starting in early March. Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac, version 4, will also be available through Nuance’s global network of reseller partners. Nuance will offer special upgrade pricing for current Dragon Dictate Medical for Mac, version 3, registered users. For additional information on features, editions, pricing, upgrades and more, please click here.
Additional resources for media are available as part of the Dragon Press Kit.
Follow Nuance on Twitter: @DragonTweets or @NuanceInc and like us on Facebook.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The statements in this press release relating to future plans, events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements, including fluctuations in demand for the Nuance products, and the continued development of Nuance products. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation. Nuance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document.
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http://www.4-traders.com/NUANCE-COMMUNICATIONS-INC-10945/news/Nuance-Communications--Announces-Dragon-Dictate-Medical-for-Mac-version-4-19805043/
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Communications : Patent Issued for Configuring a Speech Engine for a Multimodal Application Based on Location
01/29/2015 | 12:51am US/Eastern
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventors Cross, Jr., Charles W. (Wellington, FL); Jablokov, Igor R. (Charlotte, NC), filed on February 27, 2007, was published online on January 20, 2015.
The assignee for this patent, patent number 8938392, is Nuance Communications, Inc. (Burlington, MA).
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for configuring a speech engine for a multimodal application based on location.
"User interaction with applications running on small devices through a keyboard or stylus has become increasingly limited and cumbersome as those devices have become increasingly smaller. In particular, small handheld devices like mobile phones and PDAs serve many functions and contain sufficient processing power to support user interaction through multimodal access, that is, by interaction in non-voice modes as well as voice mode. Devices which support multimodal access combine multiple user input modes or channels in the same interaction allowing a user to interact with the applications on the device simultaneously through multiple input modes or channels. The methods of input include speech recognition, keyboard, touch screen, stylus, mouse, handwriting, and others. Multimodal input often makes using a small device easier.
"Multimodal applications are often formed by sets of markup documents served up by web servers for display on multimodal browsers. A `multimodal browser,` as the term is used in this specification, generally means a web browser capable of receiving multimodal input and interacting with users with multimodal output, where modes of the multimodal input and output include at least a speech mode. Multimodal browsers typically render web pages written in XHTML+Voice (`X+V`). X+V provides a markup language that enables users to interact with an multimodal application often running on a server through spoken dialog in addition to traditional means of input such as keyboard strokes and mouse pointer action. Visual markup tells a multimodal browser what the user interface is look like and how it is to behave when the user types, points, or clicks. Similarly, voice markup tells a multimodal browser what to do when the user speaks to it. For visual markup, the multimodal browser uses a graphics engine; for voice markup, the multimodal browser uses a speech engine. X+V adds spoken interaction to standard web content by integrating XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language) and speech recognition vocabularies supported by VoiceXML. For visual markup, X+V includes the XHTML standard. For voice markup, X+V includes a subset of VoiceXML. For synchronizing the VoiceXML elements with corresponding visual interface elements, X+V uses events. XHTML includes voice modules that support speech synthesis, speech dialogs, command and control, and speech grammars. Voice handlers can be attached to XHTML elements and respond to specific events. Voice interaction features are integrated with XHTML and can consequently be used directly within XHTML content.
"In addition to X+V, multimodal applications also may be implemented with Speech Application Tags (`SALT`). SALT is a markup language developed by the Salt Forum. Both X+V and SALT are markup languages for creating applications that use voice input/speech recognition and voice output/speech synthesis. Both SALT applications and X+V applications use underlying speech recognition and synthesis technologies or `speech engines` to do the work of recognizing and generating human speech. As markup languages, both X+V and SALT provide markup-based programming environments for using speech engines in an application's user interface. Both languages have language elements, markup tags, that specify what the speech-recognition engine should listen for and what the synthesis engine should `say.` Whereas X+V combines XHTML, VoiceXML, and the XML Events standard to create multimodal applications, SALT does not provide a standard visual markup language or eventing model. Rather, it is a low-level set of tags for specifying voice interaction that can be embedded into other environments. In addition to X+V and SALT, multimodal applications may be implemented in Java with a Java speech framework, in C++, for example, and with other technologies and in other environments as well.
"Current multimodal applications support a voice mode of user interaction using a speech engine. A speech engine provides recognition and generation or `synthesis` of human speech. Speech engines may be optimized for use with particular a language or dialect to better support user interaction in a particular part of the world. The drawback to current multimodal architectures, however, is that they do not provide a mechanism for seamlessly reconfiguring a speech engine as the multimodal device moves from one location to another. As such, readers will therefore appreciate that room for improvement exists for configuring a speech engine for a multimodal application based on location."
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for configuring a speech engine for a multimodal application based on location. The multimodal application operates on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction with the multimodal application, including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes. The multimodal application is operatively coupled to a speech engine. Configuring a speech engine for a multimodal application based on location includes: receiving a location change notification in a location change monitor from a device location manager, the device location manager operatively coupled to a position detection component of the multimodal device, the location change notification specifying a current location of the multimodal device; identifying, by the location change monitor in a configuration parameter repository, location-based configuration parameters for the speech engine in dependence upon the current location of the multimodal device, the location-based configuration parameters specifying a configuration for the speech engine at the current location; and updating, by the location change monitor, a current configuration for the speech engine according to the identified location-based configuration parameters.
"The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular descriptions of exemplary embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers generally represent like parts of exemplary embodiments of the invention."
For more information, see this patent: Cross, Jr., Charles W.; Jablokov, Igor R.. Configuring a Speech Engine for a Multimodal Application Based on Location. U.S. Patent Number 8938392, filed February 27, 2007, and published online on January 20, 2015. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8938392.PN.&OS=PN/8938392RS=PN/8938392
Keywords for this news article include: Technology, Nuance Communications Inc..
Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2015, NewsRx LLC
(c) 2015 NewsRx LLC
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http://www.4-traders.com/NUANCE-COMMUNICATIONS-INC-10945/news/Nuance-Communications--Patent-Issued-for-Configuring-a-Speech-Engine-for-a-Multimodal-Application-B-19779358/
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Another analyst with an investment arm:
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Nuance Communications (NUAN) Enters Oversold Territory - Tale of the Tape
By Zacks.com, January 15, 2015, 10:19:00 AM EDT AAA
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN)) has been on a bit of a cold streak lately, but there might be light at the end of the tunnel for this overlooked stock. And for technical investors there is some hope when looking at NUAN given that, according to its RSI reading of 29.10, it is now in oversold territory.
What is RSI?
RSI stands for 'Relative Strength Index' and it is a popular indicator used by technically focused investors. It compares the average of gains in days that closed up to the average of losses in days that closed down; readings above 70 suggest an asset is overbought, while an RSI below 30 suggests undervalued conditions are present.
Other Factors
Yet, NUAN's low RSI value isn't the only reason to have some optimism over a coming turnaround, as there has been plenty of positive earnings estimate revision activity as of late. This is especially true when investors take a deep dive into some of these estimate revision stats and recent changes to Nuance Communications' earnings consensus.
Over the past two months, investors have seen 4 earnings estimate revisions move higher, compared with just none lower, at least when looking at the key current year time frame. And the consensus estimate for NUAN has also been on an upward trend over the past 60 days, as estimates have risen from $0.50/share two months ago to just $0.59/share right now.
If this wasn't enough, Nuance Communications also has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) which puts it into rare company among its peers. So, given all of these factors, investors may want to consider getting in on this stock now (or holding on), as there are some favorable trends that could bubble up for this stock before long.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/nuance-communications-nuan-enters-oversold-territory-tale-of-the-tape-cm433206#ixzz3Ovaqq4Gc
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NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Communications Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NUAN)
Posted by Hasmir Abdula on Jan 13th, 2015 // No Comments
Nuance Communications logoShares of Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) were the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors bought 14,397 call options on the stock, AmericanBankingNews.com reports. This is an increase of approximately 923% compared to the average volume of 1,407 call options.
A number of research firms have recently commented on NUAN. Analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded shares of Nuance Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. They now have a $11.00 price targeton the stock, down previously from $14.00. Analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Nuance Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. They now have a $15.90 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Canaccord Genuity reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nuance Communications in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. They now have a $20.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Nuance Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.32.
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) traded up 0.74% on Monday, hitting $13.61. 4,575,870 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Nuance Communications has a one year low of $13.40 and a one year high of $19.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $14.47 and its 200-day moving average is $16.0. The company’s market cap is $4.357 billion.
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 24th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $502.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $510.80 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Nuance Communications will post $1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Nuance Communications, Inc is a provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers globally.
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http://www.mideasttime.com/nuance-communications-target-of-unusually-large-options-trading-nuan/304079/
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Back in Nuance today. Chart not great but looks like triple bottom and oversold.
Bullish SA article out this morning:
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Potential Acquisition And Break-Up Value Represent Huge Upside For Nuance Communications
Jan. 7, 2015 10:44 AM ET | 3 comments | About: Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN)
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in NUAN over the next 72 hours. (More...)
Summary
NUAN has competitive advantages in four main business sectors: healthcare, mobile & consumer, enterprise, and medical imaging.
NUAN’s financial results are improving year-over-year and SEC filings are optimistic about the future.
A business segment analysis shows that healthcare and medical imaging are NUAN’s best businesses due to their high profit margins and high competitive advantage.
A potential list of acquirers could complete an acquisition of NUAN in 2015.
NUAN is extremely undervalued and would benefit from a partial sale to streamline the company.
Company Description & Competitive Advantages
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) provides voice and natural language processing solutions for businesses and consumers. NUAN focuses its solutions in 4 main business sectors: healthcare, mobile and consumer, enterprise, and medical imaging. Through the modernization of the healthcare industry, NUAN stands to make a fortune in selling healthcare solutions and medical imaging information systems through recordkeeping and analyzing software of medical records in digital form, making an industry-leading Powerscribe 360, and having a unique bioinformatics platform. In the mobile, consumer, and enterprise space, NUAN is pushing the trend of interconnected devices and more interaction between technological products and humans; NUAN makes voice-to-text, voice-to-maps navigation, automated speech recognition, biometric speech security systems, and cloud-based mobile applications. NUAN summarizes its core competitive advantages as extending technology leadership, vertically integrating themselves to be an all-service solutions provider, increasing subscriptions sold and increasing other recurring revenues, and making strategic acquisitions and partnerships.
Financial Charts
(click to enlarge)(click link below for charts/tables)
Note: Orange line denotes a projected number.
Source: Data from FactSet and Google Finance
(click to enlarge)
Source: Data from FactSet and Google Finance
(click to enlarge)
Source: Data from FactSet and Google Finance
Enterprise Value
Enterprise Value Calculation
Market Value $ 4,510,000,000.00
Cash $ 558,200,000.00
Total Debt $ 2,132,230,000.00
Preferred Equity $ -
Minority Interest $ -
Enterprise Value $ 6,084,030,000.00
Source: Yahoo Finance
Wall Street Analyst Estimates
Wall Street Analyst Estimates
Mean Analyst Estimate $ 18.90
Current Stock Price $ 13.86
Potential Upside 36.36%
Source: FactSet and Yahoo Finance
Business Segment Analysis
(click to enlarge)
Business Segments
Business Segment Revenue by Segment ($ in millions) % of Total Revenue
Healthcare $ 943.00 46%
Mobile & Consumer $ 451.00 22%
Enterprise $ 357.00 18%
Medical Imaging $ 286.00 14%
Source: Yahoo Finance
(click to enlarge)
Source: SEC 10-K Filing
Market Competitors to NUAN by Business Segment
Market Competitors by Business Segment
Healthcare Medical Imaging Voice & Language Enterprise
3M (NYSE:MMM) ABBYY Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Microsoft
M*Modal (OTC:MODM) Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) IBM (NYSE:IBM)
Optum I.R.I.S (OTCQB:IRSB) AT&T (NYSE:T) Google
NewSoft Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO)
Intervoice
Avaya (AVYA)
Genesys
There are very few quality companies in each business segment that NUAN operates in. Out of its business segments, NUAN seems to have the most competitive advantage in healthcare and the faces the most competition in enterprise.
List of Potential Acquirers
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL): NUAN already provides the voice recognition software to Apple's digital voice assistant, Siri, for all Apple mobile products. There are also rumors of Apple poaching the best NUAN employees to improve Siri. Apple can easily use its war chest balance sheet and acquire patents, talent, and ideas in order to develop a better in-house voice recognition, digital assistant, and artificial intelligence platform for its millions of Apple devices.
Samsung (OTC:SSNLF): Samsung may want to shift away from the Google Android platform and into its in-house developed Tizen operating system. Having a decent voice assistant in new Samsung phones would be a value-added commodity if they decide to drop the Android platform in the future and reduce dependency on Google. In addition, a Samsung acquisition of NUAN would create a tough situation for Apple in voice recognition and artificial intelligence.
Amazon: Amazon acquired a voice recognition startup called Yap in late 2011, and Amazon has not made a great return on this investment. Amazon buying NUAN would improve Amazon's web analytics and could revolutionize the retail industry with voice-activated online shopping.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR): The social networking site could benefit from having voice-activated tweets to make it easier for consumers to share content. There is also precedent for social networks to be involved with speech recognition software, considering that Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) recently acquired a voice dictation startup called Wit.at.
Microsoft: In an effort to bolster Cortana, its artificial intelligence/pattern recognition platform and voice assistant, Microsoft could acquire NUAN to directly compete with Google Now/Google Voice Search and be an industry leader in the speech recognition subindustry. In addition, Microsoft is already a top five customer of NUAN, demonstrating that Microsoft already believes that NUAN makes good products.
IBM: In a continued effort to build up its data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning capabilities, and cloud enterprise solutions, adding NUAN's voice recognition system could be valuable to IBM. In addition, NUAN is already a top five customer of NUAN.
Other Companies: St. June Medical (NYSE:STJ), Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A), McKesson (NYSE:MCK), Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO), and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) would benefit from purchasing the medical imaging and other healthcare solutions departments of NUAN.
Institutional Holdings
Top 6 Institutional Holdings
Institution Number of Shares (in thousands) % of NUAN shares
Icahn Associates 60,785 18.9%
ClearBridge Investments 22,409 7.0%
PRIMECAP Management 15,288 4.8%
Vanguard 14,537 4.5%
Fairpointe Capital 14,392 4.5%
BlackRock Fund Advisors 9,445 2.9%
Total Number of NUAN Shares Outstanding 321,220 42.6%
Source: 13F Forms as of 9/30/14 and FactSet
The top six institutional owners of NUAN own 42.6% of NUAN, which is a fairly high percentage given the concentrated nature of the holdings. Importantly, Carl Icahn and ClearBridge Investments are activist investors and own over 25% of NUAN. Activism investors usually have the tendency to increase shareholder value.
Risk Factors
As usual, no company is perfect, and NUAN does exhibit a few risk factors for investors. First, NUAN has significant debt with variable interest rates, and a rise in market interest rates would negatively affect cash flows and increase debt service requirements. Second, NUAN has made numerous acquisitions and has goodwill valued at $3.4 billion. Further acquisitions could dilute existing shareholders. Third, NUAN has adopted a poison pill, which could block Carl Icahn's shareholder activism, leading to less shareholder value being unlocked. Finally, Microsoft's Cortana, Google's voice search, and Google Now will provide stiff competition to NUAN's products in terms of voice recognition, speech-to-text, and artificial intelligence.
Disjointed Management
I have a fundamental belief that the current NUAN executive management do not work well together to maximize shareholder value. First, the executive management immediately moved towards a shareholders' rights plan (poison pill) to block Carl Icahn's steep buying of NUAN stock. This aggressive action against Icahn just screams of defense and a lackluster effort to engage in meaningful discussion with Icahn. Second, the executive management is not currently pursuing a sale or spinoff, which is irksome considering that more shareholder value would be unlocked. Third, while some NUAN Directors have purchased NUAN stock, the current management team, including Chairman and CEO Paul Ricci, continue to sell NUAN shares. Ricci sold 348,082 shares on November 28, 2014. I really hope that either the executive management makes a turnaround effort for the company, or Icahn and other investors change the company leadership, turnaround the company, and explore a sale through activism.
My Proposal
NUAN is an extremely undervalued business and is worth close to $7 billion in my opinion. Two potential triggers for the stock to trend upward include Facebook's recent of acquisition voice dictation startup, Wit.ai, and Carl Icahn's ~19% activist stake in the company (his firm is currently holding a loss in this position). NUAN has an incredibly strong business in healthcare and medical imaging: less competition, more NUAN product differentiation, and high profit margins. While NUAN's enterprise and mobile departments still fair well, NUAN faces lower profit margins and stiff competition from large technology companies. Overall, I propose to spin off or sell the enterprise, mobile, and consumer business segments of Nuance Communications. This will streamline the company to focus on its high-margin core strengths: healthcare and medical imaging. Luckily, a few companies would strongly benefit with realized synergies from acquiring NUAN's enterprise and mobile departments. Overall, with a spinoff or sale and a subsequent consolidation of NUAN's corporate activity, efficiency and shareholder value will tremendously increase.
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http://seekingalpha.com/article/2803715-potential-acquisition-and-break-up-value-represent-huge-upside-for-nuance-communications?uide=996949&uprof=46
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Communications - Time For Management To Disinvest
Dec. 30, 2014 3:00 AM ET | 4 comments | About: Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN), Includes: AAPL
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More...)
Summary
NUAN has established leadership in a growth industry.
Earnings have stabilized.
NUAN is diversified across many industries.
Icahn has a large stake and is known for obtaining shareholder value by splitting up whole into parts.
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) is recognized as the premier voice and recognition technology company. It has become the predominant player in what was previously a fragmented industry. NUAN spent over four billion dollars in buying out its rivals, outspending its free cash flow while increasing debt and reporting decreasing margins to fund the acquisitions.
The stock price is currently off about 20% from its 52 week high and almost 50% off from its 3 year high. Time to change strategy. Instead of licensing deals, the game plan is now growth from recurring revenues. For the full 2014 fiscal year, NUAN received 64% of its overall adjusted revenue from recurring revenue, up from around half in fiscal 2012. Licenses represented just 26% of adjusted revenue, down form 38% in 2012. Nuance clearly established a successful shift in executing its new strategy as it beat estimates for the recently completed quarter and provided 2015 guidance reflecting organic revenue growth and stability in operating efficiency, providing investors with reasonable expectations of what to expect from the now dominant player in a growth industry.
The technical picture also indicates that the stock has found solid bottom support. The chart indicates a very positive double bottom has formed. In the meantime, hedge funds have become interested. Most notably, activist Carl Icahn has taken a very large position.
Icahn is known for taking a stake in a company and forcing the company to enhance shareholder value by buying back shares, increasing the dividend or breaking itself up. Here's the problem for Icahn....NUAN's acquisition strategy has resulted in a company that serves multiple segments, including automotive, healthcare, mobile, imaging and consumer sectors. Healthcare represents about half of revenues. There aren't any potential suitors who would be interested in acquiring the company as a whole unless it would be as a defensive move to prevent a rival from acquiring it.
Potential takeovers have stirred the pot. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a major customer of NUAN's as it uses Nuance's technology for its voice recognition system for the iPhone, known as SIRI. AAPL has been rumored to be interested in acquiring NUAN or perhaps to be pressured into the move by Icahn who has an ownership interest in AAPL. NUAN's stock fell on news that AAPL has been developing its own voice recognition software, but then came rumors of Samsung as a potential suitor that have not let to anything so far.
On fundamentals, NUAN looks cheap. The forward P.E. of 12 and a PEG under 1 are clearly lower than comparable tech stocks. The forecasted growth rate is over 20%. Deutche Bank has a price target 44% higher than market price. Morgan Stanley sees 20% upside. There are several analysts coming in between Deutche Bank and Morgan Stanley's forecasts.
NUAN has over 4,000 patents and patent applications, serves over two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, offers software in over 50 languages, and is clearly the leader in its field. The chart, the earnings and the fundamentals indicate that a bottom has been formulated. Icahn first established a position in NUAN in early 2003. His brand of shareholder activism may result in realizing a boost to shareholders from splitting up the company and making it easier for Apple or Samsung or perhaps someone like Microsoft to come around and buy. In the meantime, the biggest downside risk in buying NUAN shares is that Icahn loses his patience and sells his stake.
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http://seekingalpha.com/article/2786945-nuance-communications-time-for-management-to-disinvest?uide=996949&uprof=46
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Communications: A Dive Into The Valuation Divulges Significant Upside
Dec. 16, 2014 3:22 PM ET | About: Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN)
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More...)
Summary
Voice recognition technologies are likely to witness growth during the next five years. Nuance is a prominent player in this space.
The stock under performed during 2014, thanks to the net loss during the year.
Consequently, the stock is trading quite cheaply, presenting investors with an opportunity to buy.
FCF, EVA and PE based valuations reveal significant upside.
Sometimes beaten down stocks provide great value for prospective investors. This report is dedicated to one such stock that is Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN). The stock was an underperformer during 2014 as it lost 25% of its value during the last six months. Negative net income might be the reason Nuance underperformed during the last few quarters. However, with income expected to bounce back going forward, the stock seems quite underpriced. This report will discuss the valuation of Nuance in detail using the PE, EVA and FCF approach. Let's start with a brief introduction.
Nuance Communications is a technology company that belongs to the application software industry. The company is involved in the provision of voice recognition and natural language solutions for consumers and enterprises. Nuance's primary solutions include customer service virtual assistants, speech recognition for consumers, professionals and businesses, and transcription and clinical documentation software and services for the healthcare industry. The company basically markets its speech-to-text solutions for different industries.
Popular products
Some popular products of the company include Clintegrity 360, Nina Virtual Assistant, Copitrak and Dragon. Brief details are as follows:
Clintegrity 360 is a clinical documentation solution that includes hands-free documentation, coding, documentation improvement and quality management services for the healthcare industry.
Nina Virtual Assistant, as the name indicates, is a virtual assistant that automates customer services. The company claims that the virtual assistant delivers customer service through a human-like conversational interface.
Copitrak is a cost management and cost recovery solution for law firms. The software offers features like recovering client-billable expenses, recording client information and allocating expenses to a particular client.
Dragon, a speech recognition software, converts speech into text. Nuance offers separate solutions for consumers, professionals and businesses.
Revenue classification
The company generates its revenue from licensing its products or obtaining royalties from OEMs. Licenses are offered on a perpetual basis or term basis. Revenue for hosted services is based on volume of usage, number of seats or number of devices. Anyhow, the company serves four segments, including healthcare, mobile and consumer, enterprise and imaging. See the chart below:
(click to enlarge) (clink link below for charts/tables)
Source: Nuance earnings press release
The chart depicts that the company generates most of its revenue from healthcare, thanks to popular solutions like Clintegrity 360. During fiscal 2014, the company posted nominal revenue growth of 3.7% supported by 10.4% and 3.3% growth in enterprise and healthcare segment, respectively. However, the consumer segment and imaging segment offset this growth by 5.9% and 3%, respectively.
Some other significant facts about the company include the following:
Two-third of the Fortune 100 companies uses Nuance products. Eight largest smartphone OEMs and ten large automakers are Nuance customers.
Some prominent customers include Avera Health, Cleveland Clinic, Acer (OTC:ACEIY), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), Motorola (NYSE:MSI) and Samsung (OTC:SSNLF).
Vantage Point - Valuation
In this section, the valuation of Nuance is explored in detail. Valuation metrics like PE, FCF and EVA are used to analyze whether the equity is cheap in the current scenario.
Cash-flow approach
Nuance generates healthy cash flows. The company generated average operating cash flow of $408 million p.a. for the last three years. As net income is negative for the past two years, cash flow to revenue relation is analyzed to build a cash flow projection for the company. See below:
(click to enlarge) (clink link below for charts/tables)
Source: Yahoo Finance and author's calculations.
Now, average OCF/revenue ratio is around 22.6%. This will be used as a starting point to project future cash flows. It can be argued that the ratio is declining year over year. The counter argument is that earnings are expected to witness double-digit growth going forward. OCF/Revenue ratio also will improve. Anyhow, to be prudent, a ratio of 20% will be used for calculation purposes. Average capital expenditures, as calculated above, will be used as a starting point, which also is assumed to remain constant going forward.
Projection of revenue growth is a difficult task. Industry growth projections and recent revenue growth trends for the company are explored to select the growth figure. 7% growth for the next five years is assumed for calculations. This is a very cautious estimate. Industry experts are projecting double-digit growth. TechNavio projected a CAGR of 22% during 2012-2016 for the global voice recognition market.
Source: TechNavio, BCC Research and ReportsnReports
Analysts are expecting growth of 5.5% p.a. for the next two years. 7% seems to be a viable growth figure for the company given the combination of analysts' forecasts and double-digit industry growth.
Miscellaneous assumptions:
CAPM is used to calculate the cost of equity. Ten-year cumulative annual return on NASDAQ is used as a proxy for market return in CAPM calculation.
0% growth is assumed in perpetuity.
Long-term treasury yield is assumed as a proxy for risk-free rate.
(click to enlarge)
Source: Focus Equity estimates
So, FCF-based valuation reveals an upside on around 23% relative to the current stock price of Nuance. Let's explore the EVA approach. For those of you not familiar with EVA, read this.
EVA approach
As earnings are expected to grow at a much higher rate than revenue during the next five years, EVA may be the best approach to analyze Nuance. Sticking to the analysts' consensus for this one might be a good idea as well. Assumptions are as follows:
Consensus earnings projections are used for FY2015 and FY2016. 13% growth is assumed during 2016-2019. No growth is assumed in perpetuity.
Balance sheet value of shareholders' equity is used for the calculation of total cost of capital. 0% share dilution is assumed going forward.
CAPM assumptions as above.
(click to enlarge)
Source: Focus Equity estimates
EVA-based valuation reveals a potential upside of 26%. Note that the assumptions are quite cautious. Analysts are expecting earnings growth of 20% p.a. for the next five years. Growth rate used in the above projection equates to CAGR of 11.5% during 2015-2019.
PE approach
Nuance seems pretty cheap on a PE basis. The company is trading around 11.50 times forward earnings while earnings are expected to grow at CAGR of 20% p.a. during the next five years. The application software industry attracts a PE of 40.5, according to Yahoo Finance. Industry average mentioned by Reuters is 25.85. Thereby, Nuance is very cheap on a PE basis. A multiple of 15 is very reasonable, rather prudent for Nuance. PEG ratio of 0.62 also indicates that the stock is undervalued. Anything below 1 is considered cheap from a PEG perspective. PE-based valuation reveals an upside of 30% based on a justifiable multiple of 15.
Source: Focus Equity estimates
Final thoughts
Technologies like voice recognition and speech-to-text are being adopted at a decent rate. Industry experts are forecasting double-digit growth. Nuance is a prominent player in the industry. Therefore, it is highly likely that the company will capitalize on the growth prospects in the industry.
Now, from a valuation perspective, the stock seems a buy. FCF, EVA and PE based valuations project upside of 23%, 26% and 29%, respectively. This translates to an average equal weight price target of $17.8, or 27% upside. Neither of the valuations provides any downside evidence. All in all, I am inclined to rate the stock as a buy amid cheap valuations.
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http://seekingalpha.com/article/2760225-nuance-communications-a-dive-into-the-valuation-divulges-significant-upside?uide=996949&uprof=46
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Swype Adds 16 New Languages and Intuitive Emoji Input
The Top Paid Third-Party Keyboard for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Users Running iOS8 Brings Speed and Accuracy to More Consumers Worldwide
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced that its popular Swype keyboard for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users with iOS 8 is now available in more than 20 languages. Other new features include new intuitive emoji support, as well as new keyboard layouts. And iPad users can now access all available Swype themes. Swype's pioneering continuous touch technology has changed the way people input text on smartphones, and was the top paid third-party keyboard within 24 hours of launching on the App Store.
"The response to Swype for iOS 8 has been amazing, and we're thrilled to have quickly updated the app with 16 additional languages - the most currently available for any third-party keyboard for iOS 8," said Aaron Sheedy, vice president of mobile solutions, Mobile Division, Nuance. "People love the speed and ease of quickly Swyping from one letter to the next - and it's incredibly cool to see the words and phrases you are about to Swype automatically appear as you go - almost at the same time you're thinking them."
New Swype for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch features include:
Expanded Language Support: In addition to English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, Swype is now available in more than 20 languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, UK English, Finnish, Greek, Hinglish, Hungarian, Irish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish.
Intuitive Emoji Input: Stoked about the upcoming game this weekend? When you message your friends about your excitement, Swype will now automatically suggest the right emoji. Swype will predict emojis based on the words you enter - so if you're feeling happy, confused, tenacious or satisfied, Swype's got just the right emoji for you.
New Keyboard Layouts: Swype now features QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY keyboard layouts for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users running iOS 8, as well as a new layout specifically designed for iPad - making it easier than ever to Swype however you hold it.
Additionally, iPad users now can enjoy all Swype's themes - free.
Availability
Swype is available for a special price of $0.99 from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.AppStore.com. To learn more, visit: http://www.swype.com
Swype is a part of Nuance's portfolio of voice, touch and natural language understanding innovations that are defining a new generation of intelligent systems and personal assistant technologies. With Nuance technology, people experience a more human conversation with the world's best phones, tablets, computers, cars, TVs, apps and services from leading manufacturers and operators.
To learn more visit: www.nuance.com or follow us on Twitter: @NuanceInc or @Swype
Additional information for media is available via the Swype Press Kit.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Nuance, Swype and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Source: Nuance Communications, Inc.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nuance-swype-adds-16-new-languages-and-intuitive-emoji-input-20141104-01254#ixzz3I89RpZmA
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NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance's Price Tag: 50% Upside
Oct. 22, 2014 7:48 AM ET | About: Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN)
Disclosure: The author is long NUAN, TIBX. (More...)
Summary
Nuance is the industry leader in Voice-Recognition Technologies and a fast-growing Cloud Computing Company.
Recurring Revenue equates to 65% of all sales.
Private Market Value of $22.75 per share should be conservative price tag.
Over the course of 2 years, I have closely watched and studied Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN). One could classify this company as misunderstood because of an ambiguous executive management. I often find myself giggling at frustrated sell-side analysts during conference call Q&As. The stock itself has behaved very poorly and I have taken advantage of the decline with additional stock purchases.
My Investment Thesis in a nutshell:
As the eco-system of voice-enabled devices and apps grow, so will Nuance. I also believe we are very close to a tipping point.
One of the latest apps sporting Nuance's technology is the new Domino's (NYSE:DPZ) Pizza App for smartphones.
After reading Barron's over the weekend, I happened to discover a very interesting note in the "Activist Spotlight." Private Equity firms and strategic investors often acquire software companies at multiples of recurring revenue. On September 30, Tibco Software (NASDAQ:TIBX) was purchased for $4.3 billion or 7x its recurring revenue by Vista Equity Partners.
Since the buyout, rumors had emerged at Nuance during the summer. I thought it would be prudent to create a valuation based on the 7x recurring sales multiple paid for TIBCO.
During last August's Q3 conference call, CEO Ricci stated that Nuance's sales are now 65% recurring revenues and growing.
"Daniel Ives - FBR Capital Markets
In terms of the transition, obviously, we've kind of had ups and downs in the transition. Does it feel like the trend, the move to subscription, the model shift, we're kind of in that seventh to eighth inning? I know you can't talk much about 2015, but maybe you could just give some comment about where we are in that shift?
Paul Ricci- CEO of Nuance
I think the most factual way that I can answer that question is to make reference to a data point that I think it's in the prepared remarks, but also was in my opening comments, and that is that we're now at 65% of recurring revenues, and if you look back at the trend of the percentage for recurring revenues over the last four, six quarters, you've seen that growing steadily up. I think that percentage is going to continue to grow.
I can't say with confidence what it will do any given quarter because we could have in a particular quarter a significant conventional licensing deal or several conventional licensing deals, but I think as we look out over the next year, that percentage will continue to go up. To speak to what inning we're in, it's a little difficult to characterize it quite that way, but we are at a relatively high percentage of recurring revenues, so I think it will continue to go up though."
If we use the same valuation metric for Nuance, we have a Private Market Value (PMV) of $8.74 billion or approximately $22.75 per share.
Current Market Cap: $4.73b
Current Enterprise Value: $6.14b
Estimated 2014 Sales
Recurring Revenue %
Sales Multiple
Total Value
$1.9 billion
65%
7x
$8.74 billion
Total Buyout Value: $8.74b
Buyout Market Capitalization: $7.24b
(Current Mkt Cap * 1.53)/Shares Outstanding)
equates to ~$22.75 per share
For a company that is a leader in its industry and close to the tipping point, I consider this valuation to be cheap. A few months ago, I wrote an article, "Nuance: It's All About the Debt Redemption Baby", speculating that management could be prepping the company for a buyout (of +$23.30/share) or outperformance with the purchase of convertible debt. Coincidentally, the price using the Recurring Revenue multiple falls right into this range. This comparable buyout valuation only helps solidify my conviction on Nuance.
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http://seekingalpha.com/article/2582515-nuances-price-tag-50-percent-upside?uprof=46
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance and eClinicalWorks Support AMA Guidelines with New Voice-Enabled Mobile Apps
Improved User Experience for Physicians in Ambulatory Practices
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced it has partnered with eClinicalWorks to use Nuance cloud-based medical speech recognition technology with eClinicalTouch for the iPad and eClinicalMobile for iPhone and Android, enabling clinicians working in outpatient settings to enter patient notes into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) using tablets and smartphones through a fully connected and consistent experience.
"This is a major win for clinicians practicing in the ambulatory setting using our Dragon Medical solution and they are excited about the opportunity to leverage the same front-end speech recognition they know and trust to support a more efficient workflow using mobile devices," says Jonathon Dreyer, director of mobile and cloud solutions, Nuance Communications. "We are seeing an intersection between consumer technology and health IT, and the ease-of-use that comes from these developments will help offset some of the challenges physicians are currently facing. The goal is to remove as much administrative burden from them as possible," he adds.
Overhauling EHR Usability
Recently, the American Medical Association (AMA) called for a design overhaul of EHRs to make them easier for physicians to use in clinical settings, outlining eight priorities to improve usability. To ensure a consistent physician experience and flexible workflow with minimal disruption, eClinicalWorks has embedded Nuance speech solutions in its mobile clinical documentation apps, empowering physicians to document patient care in their own words and in the same way on eClinicalTouch and eClinicalMobile platforms.
Healthcare mobility trends are on the rise, and Nuance has seen an increased adoption of cloud-based medical speech solutions. With several thousand clinicians using both Dragon Medical 360 and eClinicalWorks in conjunction today, mobile speech is seen as a natural extension and critical component within the clinical workflow to help them produce faster, more accurate patient notes.
"Nuance cloud-based speech integrated with eClinicalTouch and eClinicalMobile will empower our users to speak right into the iPad, iPhones, and Android phones and convert speech into text, said Girish Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks. "eClinicalWorks Scribe will then take that text and convert it into discrete data that is searchable and reportable."
Nuance's medical cloud-based speech solution embedded into the eClinicalWorks mEHRs will be demonstrated at the eClinicalWorks National Users Conference, October 17- 20 in Orlando, Florida. For more information on how Nuance is creating seamless, secure mobile solutions for clinical documentation, visit poweredbynuancehealthcare.com.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com. Connect with Nuance on social media through the healthcare blog, What's next, as well as Twitter and Facebook.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The statements in this press release relating to future plans, events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward looking statements, including fluctuations in demand for the Nuance products, and the continued development of Nuance products. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation. Nuance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document.
Source: Nuance Communications, Inc.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nuance-and-eclinicalworks-support-ama-guidelines-with-new-voiceenabled-mobile-apps-20141020-00665#ixzz3Gh837DDR
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NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Meet AneedA: A Nuance and i.am+ Collaboration for the New i.amPULS Smart Band Wearable Device
An Intelligent Personal Assistant that Takes Wearables to the Next Level
SAN FRANCISCO & BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) was on stage today with will.i.am, entrepreneur and founder of i.am+™, a company that specializes in products at the intersection of technology and fashion, at Dreamforce 2014 in San Francisco to introduce AneedA to the world. AneedA is the virtual personality and the soul of the i.amPULS (aka PULS), an intelligent personal assistant at the center of the sleek yet powerful new smart band wearable device from i.am+ that fuses high fashion and design with hi-tech.
Nuance tightly collaborated with the i.am+ team on the creation of AneedA for the PULS smart band wearable device to create a virtual personal assistant that embodies will.i.am's unique vision for the future. AneedA can also be used with all of the top apps and services on the PULS such as Facebook and Twitter.
"PULS represents my passion for, and my mission to marry design and advanced technology - to create a new breed of wearable device that leapfrogs what is currently on the market. Working with Nuance, we designed AneedA from the ground up, taking her from an innovative concept to a reality. You speak, she listens. You ask, she delivers. You need something, AneedA's ready. With you at all times and incredibly capable - AneedA is the perfect virtual personal assistant," said will.i.am, founder of i.am+ and creator of i.amPULS.
AneedA was designed to be a simple, accessible and capable digital assistant, and is unlike any other personal assistant experience currently available for wearable devices. From the moment you engage the PULS, AneedA is listening and on point to deliver, whether taking dictation for messages to send a text, playing the perfect song, posting to Facebook, scheduling appointments, making calls, and more. Conversational in nature, AneedA showcases what's possible for the next generation of voice-enabled personal assistants that embrace voice, language understanding, cognition and overall persona.
"What makes AneedA so compelling is the way in which she was designed. She is an integral part of the PULS experience, from the tasks she's able to carry out to her overall personality," said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. "will.i.am's vision for wearable technology is inspiring and gives us the ability to do what we do best - create a customized personal assistant experience that transforms the way we look at wearable technology and mobile devices."
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Source: Nuance Communications, Inc.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/meet-aneeda-a-nuance-and-iam-collaboration-for-the-new-iampuls-smart-band-wearable-device-20141015-01333#ixzz3GKKRQtXm
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Nuance does everything for all product sectors, but the pps remains limited.
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Meet Siri's Sister, Nina: The Humanoid Future Of Customer Service?
You’ve already met Siri, the earnest, cheeky and sometimes hamfisted personal assistant built into your Apple iPhone, and, belatedly, into your iPad as well.
Siri is revolutionary. She’s also a bit of a toy. Which is where her sister, Nina, comes in. Nina is like Siri, but with an actual customer experience purpose. And some nifty tricks up her sleeve.
Just like Siri, Nina is the work of Nuance Communications NUAN +1.15% [although Nuance has long been able to “neither confirm nor deny” they’re the muscle behind Siri, this vagueness being a requirement of partnering with hyper-secretive Apple].
Anyway, Nuance does accept paternity for Nina, who Greg Pal, VP of Marketing, Strategy, and Business Development for Nuance Enterprise Division, describes as the “multi-channel virtual assistant for customer service that provides intelligent and natural interactions across a variety of customer self-service applications, including text messaging, voice, mobile apps and the web.”
Uh huh. Let me parse that for you.
In other words, Nina provides voice-based assistance a la Siri, and does it for commercial, non-iOS uses. Her identity–including her name, tone of voice, and vocabulary–changes with each commercial application in order to fit the branding of the company in question, which so far include Coca-Cola , ING Netherlands, Windstream Communications, and others.
For example: Nina recently bent her gender for the sake of Domino’s Pizza, where as “Dom,” she offers voice ordering within the Domino’s app.
The Dom version of Nina is all about pizza. He’s both a virtual assistant and a kind of wiseguy Domino’s brand ambassador. Shtick like “My motherboard and fatherboard raised me well” is part of what you’ll encounter when interacting with him
Voice ordering via Dom: Courtesy Domino's Pizza LLC
Voice ordering via Nina (rebranded and gender-bent into “Dom”): Courtesy Domino’s Pizza LLC
A tough cookie behind the scenes
Nina/Dom may seem all fun and games, but behind the scenes, s/he’s kind of a tough cookie. Or, as Greg Pal from Nuance would prefer to put it, Nina not only “provides human-like customer service conversations via text or speech interactions” (using natural language understanding), she “provides connectivity to CRM, ERP and database systems.” When necessary, Nina “intelligently routes conversations to live agents and connects with other backend systems.”
And check this out, paranoids and sci fi writers: Nina can be combined with voice biometrics technology to “securely and conveniently authenticate a customer by the sounds of their voice.”
Nina’s the tip of the iceberg
Nina is the tip of the iceberg of simulated human activities going on in streamlining customer service and customer experience. Some of these industry innovations, including the combination of inbound technology and outbound abilities provide good examples of how to serve customers better in innovative ways.
Technology-driven anticipatory customer service
One of my principles of the customer experience is that good customer service only becomes great customer service–service at such a high level that it starts to bind a customer to a brand, when it becomes anticipatory customer service, service that seems nearly (although not creepily) mind-reading, service that makes a customer feel “at home,” recognized, acknowledged.
Generally such extraordinary service depends on empathetic, highly trained human beings. However, sometimes it can benefit from empathetic, anticipatory systems and technology. Nina falls into this category, as do conversational IVRs (interactive voice response systems) such as you can now encounter using technology from Nuance and other firms; such systems, as Greg Pal would put it, “gain contextual understanding from an ongoing dialog with callers and quickly route calls based on that understanding.” In addition, “by proactively providing information based on the context of upcoming activities (i.e., flights, payments, appointments) as part of the IVR greeting, companies can further speed up the interactions and enhance the experience.”
De-stressing Delta passengers
For example, when Delta Airlines can automatically be prompted to ask the [undoubtedly stressed] passenger not “Tell us how we can help you today” but “Are you calling about your delayed flight?” or “Are you calling about your flight tomorrow?” [whichever, based on the calendar or other information about the caller, is appropriate] it removes the caller’s burden of repeat explanation and speeds the time to resolution,
Technology will never be a complete customer service solution
Technology is obviously not a complete solution to the goal of providing a great customer experience and superior customer service. But intelligent technology designed intelligently by humans in a way that actually respects the humans with whom it interacts, is a real improvement over clunky, haphazard technology, endless hold times, and the frustration of having to repeat yourself over and over again because someone didn’t take the time to design a system that listens, remembers, and makes use of the information that’s been input into it by you, the long-suffering customers.
[Disclosure: I was an early investor in MacSpeech, which was purchased by Nuance in 2010. I have no ownership position in Nuance Communications.]
Micah Solomon is a customer service consultant, customer experience consultant, keynote speaker and the bestselling author most recently of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2014/10/13/meet-siris-sister-the-humanoid-future-of-customer-service/
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Nuance Communications : Garanti Bank Taps Nuance’s Nina Mobile Virtual Assistant to Deliver Convenient, Voice-Driven Mobile Banking
Innovative iGaranti Mobile App Integrates Nuance Virtual Assistant Features to Make Banking as Easy as Speaking
BURLINGTON, Mass., - October 8, 2014 -
Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced that Garanti Bank, one of the largest private banks in Turkey, is leveraging Nuance's Nina, the intelligent virtual assistant, to bring a human-like conversational interface to its iGaranti mobile banking app. Garanti Bank joins other organizations around the globe that have chosen to reinvent their customer experience through the Nina virtual assistant, enabling more human conversations with customers through speech and natural language understanding (NLU).
Garanti Bank customers can now simply converse with the iGaranti virtual assistant using natural, conversational language to inquire about their account details, transfer funds , get exchange rates, buy/sell foreign currency and a host of other functions, instead of tapping their way through the app. For example, customers can say: "I need to send 500 Liras to Ali in my contact list today" then dictate a description for the money transfer. With iGaranti, customers can also find out more about nearby shopping or savings offers, moving beyond simple, conventional, transactional banking to contextual banking that anticipates user needs based on an awareness of their habits. The truly innovative iGaranti App was the #1 Free App in the iOS App Store when it was first introduced, and has continued to be a popular download since its launch.
"iGaranti has been designed with Millennial users in mind and includes breakthrough innovations," said Didem Dinçer Baser, Executive Vice President, Garanti Bank. "At Garanti Bank, we strongly believe in the importance of voice based services. iGaranti was the first banking project outside of the United States to utilize Nina Mobile from Nuance, and we are continually making efforts to improve the voice technology for future applications. We are getting closer to our goal of allowing a seamless end-to-end speech enabled experience and we will continue to make investments into voice based services for the upcoming years."
"It's thrilling to be on the forefront of this global shift in how companies are engaging with their customers," said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Division, Nuance. "We're seeing this brought to bear in mobile apps today through the proliferation of the virtual assistant, which not only improves the customer experience, but also helps organizations to contain costs and even drive sales. It's really a new era in customer service, and companies like Garanti are on the cutting edge."
"To perform a transaction on a mobile phone, such as a money transfer, customers need to tap the small screen many times to fill in the required input fields. Performing the same transaction just by talking makes life easier, and makes for a more convenient customer experience. We are proud of being the local service provider for Garanti Bank's project in Turkey, delivering the most advanced technological experience, in cooperation with Nuance." said Tarkan Ersubasi, CEO, Speechouse, partner of Nuance in Turkey.
Nina leverages Nuance's unparalleled technology leadership and expertise in voice, natural language understanding, conversational dialogue and advanced resolution techniques, to deliver a compelling, multi-channel, automated customer service experience for the consumer and the enterprise. Nina is available now directly from Nuance in 43 spoken and 13 text languages. For more information about Nina, and to see Nina in action, please go to www.nuance.com/go/nina
About Garanti Bank
Established in 1946, Garanti Bank is Turkey's second largest private bank with consolidated assets of US$ 109.3 billion as of June 30, 2014. Garanti is an integrated financial services group operating in every segment of the banking sector including corporate, commercial, SME, payment systems, retail, private and investment banking together with its subsidiaries in pension and life insurance, leasing, factoring, brokerage, and asset management besides international subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Russia and Romania. Garanti has an extensive distribution with 995 branches, 4,000 ATMs, an award-winning Call Center, state-of-the-art internet, mobile and social banking platforms.
About Speechouse
Active in the customer services sector in Turkey since 2006, Speechouse designs and implements advanced speech technology projects. These bespoke projects are based around leading edge technologies such as Advanced Speech Recognition, Voice Verification, Text to Speech and Call Steering. Speechouse's expertise is in delivering these technologies to business partners in a managed service model. This reduces time to implement and infrastructure costs, at the same time delivering a faster and more robust return in investment. For more information, please visit www.speechouse.com
About Nuance Communications, Inc
Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Nuance Communications Contact:
US
Erica Hill
781-888-5518
erica.hill@nuance.com
EMEA
Vanessa Richter
+32 475769507/
vanessa.richter@nuance.com
__________________________________
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Meet Dom: the Virtual Voice Ordering Assistant for Domino's Pizza®
Published: Oct 6, 2014 10:28 a.m. ET
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Domino's Pizza DPZ, +0.19% the recognized world leader in pizza delivery, has found its voice. Dom, the virtual voice ordering assistant for Domino's, is at your service via Domino's ordering apps for iPhone® and Android™.
In conjunction with Nuance Communications NUAN, -1.37% , Domino's launched its voice ordering platform in June – marking a true first within both traditional and e-commerce retail. And Dom is the digital voice on the other side of the conversation that will make it all happen.
"Mobile customers are not only going to love the ease of this landmark ordering experience, but they now have the opportunity to have some fun with Dom himself, who has a few more things to say than before," said Patrick Doyle, Domino's Pizza president and CEO.
"I'm many updates wiser than when I first started," said Dom, who will make his national television debut in a campaign beginning today.
While this will mark the first time the technology innovation has been promoted nationally, many customers have already come to know Dom and his positive attitude and professionalism on the job.
"My motherboard and fatherboard raised me right," said Dom.
Dom is available for a variety of personalized ordering needs – which include taking an order for carryout or delivery, handling saved Easy Orders, suggesting additions to a meal and finding coupons for the best deals. Whatever the ordering need, he is available and ready.
Dom added: "Let's get this party started."
** All Dom quotes in this release are responses you can actually hear him say. Download our ordering app for your mobile device to hear these and more…and of course, order from Domino's! **
** To see the reactions of people as they are introduced to Dom, watch the footage on the Nuance Enterprise YouTube Channel: **
About Domino's Pizza®
Founded in 1960, Domino's Pizza is the recognized world leader in pizza delivery, with a significant business in carryout pizza. It ranks among the world's top public restaurant brands with its global enterprise of more than 11,000 stores in over 70 international markets. Domino's had global retail sales of over $8.0 billion in 2013, comprised of nearly $3.8 billion in the U.S. and over $4.2 billion internationally. In the second quarter of 2014, Domino's had global retail sales of over $2.0 billion, comprised of $0.9 billion in the U.S. and $1.1 billion internationally. Its system is made up of franchise owners who accounted for nearly 97% of the Domino's Pizza stores as of the second quarter of 2014. The emphasis on technology innovation helped Domino's generate approximately 40% of U.S. sales from its digital channels in 2013, as well as reach an estimated $3 billion annually in global digital sales. Domino's recently launched its ordering app for iPad®, adding to an existing ordering app lineup that covers nearly 95% of the smartphone market. In June 2014, Domino's debuted voice ordering for its iPhone® and Android™ apps, a true technology first within both traditional and e-commerce retail.
Order - www.dominos.com
Mobile - http://mobile.dominos.com
Info - www.dominosbiz.com
Twitter - http://twitter.com/dominos
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/dominos
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/dominos
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. NUAN, -1.37% is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141006/150401
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120814/DE55948LOGO-b
SOURCE Domino's Pizza
Copyright (C) 2014 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
_____________________________________
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/meet-dom-the-virtual-voice-ordering-assistant-for-dominos-pizza-2014-10-06
NUAN
chmcnfunds
10 years ago
Elektrobit (EB) and Nuance humanize the new Audi TT
New Audi TT's Virtual Cockpit enables intuitive user interactions with intelligent voice and natural language understanding technologies
PARIS, Oct. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
The bond between man and machine is about to get personal. Elektrobit (EB) and Nuance unveiled today at Paris Motor Show the integration of voice and natural language understanding (NLU) technology as part of the Virtual Cockpit in the new Audi TT Roadster. As a result, drivers are able to engage in a more natural, conversational dialogue with Audi's infotainment and navigation capabilities, the same way they would talk to their friend. With intuitive voice commands, drivers and passengers can control system menu, phone, tuner, media and navigation features through everyday speech, without having to stick to defined commands.
The new TT is the first Audi model to feature NLU as part of a fully speech-enabled infotainment system powered by Nuance's Dragon Drive connected car platform. Drivers and passengers will be able to experience an even more consistent, natural speech dialogue with incredibly accurate speech recognition and text-to-speech that has been optimized for the automotive environment. The result is a smarter, safer in-car experience that allows drivers to keep their eyes on the road, and hands on the wheel.
"Natural language understanding is an integral part of Audi's revolutionary Virtual Cockpit concept, and makes the in-car experience as intuitive as the driving dynamics," said Markus Schupfner, Executive Vice President Operations, at EB's Automotive Business Segment. "The Virtual Cockpit is a milestone for HMI development and sets the stage for a new industry standard."
EB has integrated this industry-leading voice technology into the application developer ecosystem, ensuring smooth communication with applications like navigation, phone, organizer and other systems. e.solutions GmbH, a jointly owned company of EB and Audi, took over the integration of the application portfolio into the overall HMI system and created a seamless user experience. Both EB and e.solutions worked with EB's leading integrated HMI software platform EB GUIDE.
The NLU system is embedded in Audi's Virtual Cockpit, a new HMI concept that enables easier and more intuitive user interaction. It lets people control and interact with applications and services like navigation, phone and email as well as multimedia content through natural speech. Speech dialog systems without NLU lead the user through a long dialog of questions and answers, and required the user to stick to specific words and phrases.
Now with NLU the infotainment system understands the sense of naturally spoken sentences like "Where is the next gas station on our way?" or "Could you please find the nearest restaurant?" Natural language understanding in the Audi TT will be available in German and English (UK) at first, with more languages to follow. Other, non-NLU voice control features are available in more than 20 languages.
The new Audi TT natural language understanding system marks another important step in the long-standing partnership of EB, Nuance and Audi for voice technology. Since the release of the Audi A1 in 2008, EB and Nuance have provided state-of-the-art voice technology to a number of models and car lines. The new NLU system will gradually be rolled out to other models of Audi as well.
"Natural and intuitive interactions are key for an excellent driver user experience and user acceptance. Audi's Virtual Cockpit sets new milestones in terms of usability and we are proud that our voice and natural language technology is part of the innovative concept in the new Audi TT", says Arnd Weil, Vice President and General Manager, Nuance Automotive.
You can find press reports for EB at: www.elektrobit.com/whats_new/press_releases
Images of the Audi TT and the Virtual Cockpit are available here.
Elektrobit Corporation (EB)
EB creates advanced technology and turns it into enriching end-user experiences. EB is specialized in demanding embedded software and hardware solutions for wireless and automotive industries. The net sales in 2013 totaled MEUR 199.3 and operating profit was EUR 8.1 million. Elektrobit Corporation is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. www.elektrobit.com
Elektrobit (EB) - Automotive Software
EB represents one of the most important suppliers of embedded software solutions for the automotive industry. In addition to the development of innovative products, it also specializes in services and consulting for the automotive industry, supplying implementations of serial software solutions for a broad range of AUTOSAR and FlexRay, infotainment, navigation, HMI and driver assistance systems. EB continues to invest in feature integration and development tools so that the in-vehicle devices get to market more quickly and ship in volume sooner. www.automotive.elektrobit.com
Nuance Communications
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141001/149790
SOURCE Elektrobit (EB)
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/elektrobit-eb-and-nuance-humanize-the-new-audi-tt-20141002-00037#ixzz3EzHAKl8x
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NUAN
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