Nuance goes after Central America, Europe with Loquendo acquisition

Speech-based computing company Nuance Communications on Monday announced that it acquired Telecom Italia subsidiary Loquendo, a company specializing in text-to-speech (TTS), automatic speech recognition (ASR) and voice biometrics solutions mostly for Romance languages.

Though Nuance already has support for more than 80 languages across its various text-based solutions like FlexT9, this acquisition gives the company broader support for speech-based actions in Latin languages, and its most popular product Dragon Dictation could support even more Romance languages. Currently, the application supports fifteen languages and is available in eighteen countries.

The transaction, which will close in September, will also bring Nuance more network-based and embedded customers in emerging Latin American and European markets such as Sintel in Turkey, and call center company DNK Infotelecom in Central America.

"The penetration of Loquendo's offerings and the company's positive industry recognition will serve as a catalyst in expanding our market reach and our voice and language portfolio…across a number of growing markets that will initially include enterprise, mobile and automotive--with a significant opportunity to accelerate our efforts in Europe and Latin America," Nuance chief marketing officer Steve Chambers said in a statement on Monday.

Full Disclosure: Tim Conneally is a Nuance Communications shareholder