$16B Microsoft/Nuance Deal to Get EU Approval

Microsoft is set to receive the green light from EU antitrust regulators on its $16 billion purchase of the artificial intelligence (AI) and speech technology firm Nuance Communications.

As Reuters reported on Friday (Dec. 10), sources close to the matter say the deal will receive unconditional approval.

The news comes just three days after a report that the European Commission’s competition bureau was going to ask customers and competitors of both companies to fill out questionnaires detailing their concerns about the deal.

Read more: Microsoft’s $16B Nuance Deal Under Review by EU

As Reuters notes, Microsoft’s planned acquisition of the company – which was first announced in April – comes in the wake of new scrutiny into “killer acquisitions,” in which Big Tech firms buy smaller (and potential rival) companies only to shutter them.

The acquisition stems from an earlier Microsoft/Nuance collaboration on a healthcare administration automation project.

“Nuance provides the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery and is a pioneer in the real-world application of enterprise AI,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in April.

As PYMNTS noted at the time, this would be Microsoft’s largest acquisition since the tech giant’s $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn five years ago.

And while this deal could improve Microsoft’s place in the healthcare market and its AI offerings in terms of health, speed and biometric security, there could be another factor at work.

Nuance has traditionally made a deal with customers to use their data to improve its voice recognition technology. Former Nuance employees say this could explain Microsoft’s interest in the smaller company, as larger cloud vendors typically can’t get access to customer data for research purposes.

The deal has gotten approval from regulators in the U.S. and Australia, but still needs approval from the Competition Market Authority, the antitrust agency in the U.K., Reuters says. A spokesperson for the agency told the news service it does not speculate on which cases it will or won’t investigate.