speech, voice, speech to text

Nuance Writes Itself an eScription

Wade Roush 4/9/08

Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN), the Burlington, MA-based provider of speech-related software technologies and services, including the Dictaphone system used by hundreds of thousands of doctors to dictate clinical notes over the phone, said yesterday that it will purchase Needham, MA-based eScription. The company makes automated speech-to-text software that turns dictated medical notes into rough first drafts, which are then polished by professional medical transcriptionists. Nuance said it will pay $363 million for eScription—$340 million in cash and $23 million in Nuance common stock.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.