Nuance Communications is set to acquire Vlingo. Founded
in 2006, Vlingo is backed by Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners, Yahoo! and
AT&T.
The acquisition is happening at a time when there is an
unprecedented demand for intelligent voice interfaces that combine voice,
language understanding and semantic processing.
Nuance and Vlingo will combine their innovation and
R&D expertise to deliver next-generation natural language interfaces across
numerous markets and industries.
Both Nuance and Vlingo see an unprecedented appetite for
intelligent devices that understand the spoken word and deliver outcomes for
consumers and professionals.
Inspired by the introduction of services such as Apple’s
Siri and our own Dragon Go!, virtually every mobile and consumer electronics
company on the planet is looking for ways to integrate natural, conversational
voice interactions into their mobile products, applications, and services,”
said Mike Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile.
Consumer interest and demand for virtual assistant and
voice-enabled capabilities have exploded in recent months, creating a $5
billion market opportunity that spans phones, tablets, cars, televisions,
navigation devices, music players, PCs and more.
Vlingo and Nuance have long shared a similar vision for
the power and global proliferation of mobile voice and language understanding.
As a result of our complementary research and development efforts, our
companies are stronger together than alone. Our combined resources afford us
the opportunity to better compete, and offer a powerful proposition to
customers, partners and developers,” said Dave Grannan, CEO, Vlingo.
Nuance will be able to take advantage of the adoption of
intelligent mobile assistants, where consumers, businesses, doctors and
patients can engage in more human, natural interactions with devices and
systems all over the world.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
