Spinvox, the UK company which changes voicemails into texts, has been bought for $102.5m (£64m) by Nuance, the speech recognition company. Only approximately a third of the estimated price tag of $146m, the new deal is worth $36.5m in stock and $66m cash.
Commenting on the deal, technology correspondent for the BBC Rory Cellan-Jones said “At the beginning of the year Spinvox was riding high as one of Britain’s most promising technology companies. But the year has ended with it being sold at a knock-down price which means its investors are not likely to see much of a return.” Nuance declined to comment on whether Daniel Doulton and Christina Domecq, founders of Spinvox, would stay on the board of directors, whilst admitting that it was too early to reveal how the 230 individuals who work at Spinvox would be affected.
Earlier in the year questions were raised over the true capabilities of Spinvox’s software after it was discovered that large amounts of data were actually being translated by human staff rather than the software itself. Later in September it was announced by investor Invesco Perpetual that the company was to be sold.
Speaking of the deal, Nuance Voice-to-Text Services vice president John Pollard said “Around the world, the voice-to-text market has experienced tremendous growth over the last year. With Spinvox’s robust infrastructure, language support and operational experience, we will broaden the reach and capabilities of our platform.”
