Nuance Communications buys rival SpinVox for $102.5 million

Speech and imaging solutions provider Nuance Communications has acquired a troubled UK startup, the voice-to-text conversion company SpinVox, for $102.5 million, to accelerate the expansion of its voice-to-text business.

Nuance Communications has managed to get a good deal as it has paid nearly half of the $200 million ploughed in by investors in recent years.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nuance will pay $102.5 million, comprising $66 million in cash and $36.5 million, or approximately 2.3 million shares, in Nuance common stock.

Founded in 2003 by Christina Domecq of the famed Spanish sherry family and Daniel Doulton, SpinVox is a leading voice-to-text company. SpinVox works with mobile operators, cable companies and application developers to deliver network and enterprise voice-to-text solutions that make daily communications simpler by converting voice and text.

It customers include a number of major carriers such as Alltel, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, TELUS, Movistar, Optus, Vodacom, Vodafone Spain, Telstra, Skype and others. But the company's image took a beating with a series of damaging allegations about its finances and its technology.

Unaudited accounts for 2008 show the group's pre-tax loss widened to £49 million compared with £37 million a year earlier.