Oversize #23: Microsoft goes all in on healthcare with Nuance

Abhishek Baxi

10 May 2021

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Last month, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Nuance Communications, a leading speech-recognition company, in an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 billion—second only to its $26.2 billion deal for LinkedIn in 2016.

Over the past few years, Microsoft, under CEO Satya Nadella, has been eyeing significantly larger mergers and acquisitions to expand into high-growth markets. Last year, the company also tried to buy a stake in video-sharing service TikTok’s US operations in a deal reportedly valued between $10 billion and $30 billion. Recently, the company was reported to have held talks to acquire messaging platform Discord for at least $10 billion, which seem to have fallen through.

It’s going well for the company as its stock hit an all-time high recently and it approaches $2 trillion in market value. But still, why would Microsoft pay billions for a speech-recognition company?

One thing most reports around the acquisition highlighted was the fact

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