The European Commission (EC) gives green light to Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance. The takeover would have little impact on mutual competition in the European Union.
With the approval by the EC, an obstacle in the takeover process will disappear. In April of this year, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Nuance, but it recently became clear that the European Commission wanted to conduct further investigations. The investigation has now been completed and concludes that the acquisition may go ahead.
Research into overlap activities
In its own words, the EC has mainly investigated the overlap between Microsoft’s activities and Nuance’s speech technology. It was found that both companies supplied different products. If these products were to be combined with each other, there would be sufficiently strong competition from alternative suppliers within the European Union.
The competition authorities in the United States and Australia had previously given the green light.
Nuance acquisition
The acquisition of Nuance by Microsoft involves an amount of more than 14 billion euros (16 billion dollars). The tech giant wants to gain more capacity in the field of AI with the technology of the AI and transcription technology supplier for healthcare and call centers, among others. Also, Nuance’s brand awareness should help Microsoft gain more market share in the healthcare and call center market.
