Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN)

[chmcnfunds]

A Seriously Siri-Less Apple

Oct. 1, 2014 7:52 AM ET | 10 comments | About: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Includes: NUAN

Disclosure: The author is short AAPL. Author is long NUAN and has no position in SSNLF (More...)

Siri could soon be lost to Samsung with an impending deal.
Carl Icahn owns 20% of Siri host and seems to want to sell.
If Apple loses its voice, it loses the war of the wearables.
As we enter a seemingly shaky period in the market, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) sits at all-time highs, investors must be wary of any looming risks. While the story of missing Apple-style innovation is well discussed, there is one risk currently that seems to be missing from the discussion and could be a rude awakening.

Unbeknownst to many, Apple does not own the technology behind Siri. The technology is provided by Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN), also known for Dragon dictation software and Swype keyboard.

Stock in Nuance shot up in June on the announcement that Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) was in talks to buy Nuance. The stock then sold off on the news that the deal had slowed due to "complexities." However, the news was that the deal "slowed," not stalled or fell apart or the like.

NUAN Chart

Nuance went back into a decline as the market forgot about the deal until Tuesday when the stock spiked again on more news that the Samsung deal was in process.

NUAN Price Chart (click link for charts/tables)

NUAN Price data by YCharts

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

The story begins back in April 2013 when Carl Icahn announced he had taken a 10% stake in Nuance. Over time Icahn gradually built up his stake to just under 20%. Uncharacteristically, a usually vocal Icahn didn't say a word about it. Essentially the only statements made by Carl were two tweets he sent out when he reached a standstill agreement with Nuance wherein he would not be an activist in exchange for placing two of his people on the Nuance board, his son Brett Icahn [whom he credits with his Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) success] and another associate Dave Schechter. Tweets here and here.

Rumors swirled regarding the reasons for Icahn's stake in Nuance, but the oddity of Carl Icahn saying virtually nothing while taking a 20% stake in a company leads one to believe that his end game was to put the company up for sale, and to do that he needs to keep the price down to attract suitors, hence the fact the he remained/remains quiet.

Additional evidence that a sale is forthcoming was outlined in a recent SA article in which the author took notice of a quiet statement in the last earnings report that Nuance was redeeming 2027 convertible notes, reasoning as follows:

A buyout offer is on the table, and calling back the debt will save the future acquirer ~$50 million from a debt-to-share convert.

The logic behind the deal makes sense for Samsung and puts Apple in a bind. Not only does the acquisition give their biggest competitor a number of new advantages, but it also places the technology of Siri in their hands. Of course Apple could bid higher and buy Nuance themselves, but that's the real catch. See, Nuance is really four companies leveraging a common technology base. The four companies (healthcare, consumer/mobile, enterprise, imaging) all fit nicely into Samsung's framework. But in the case of an Apple acquisition, they would end up with a number of businesses that they don't need - healthcare, enterprise and imaging. That gives Apple the choice of:

1 - Not bidding and watching Siri disappear into the Samsung ether.

2 - Outbidding and paying for divisions that they will shut down, essentially wasting billions of dollars.

3 - Diluting their focus by becoming involved in call centers, healthcare coding software and document centers. This might sound great, but for a company that is struggling to innovate in their own backyard, the last thing they need to do is branch out into the unknown.

Oppenheimer's Shaul Eyal explains why the Samsung synergies make sense:

…By adding NUAN's healthcare division into Samsung's small healthcare business, Samsung could be gaining access to 450,000 clinicians, 10,000 healthcare institutions, 50% of radiology reports (focus area for Samsung), and 98% of most connected hospitals. In the consumer/mobile segment, Samsung could benefit from NUAN's growing relations with car manufacturers as connected cars are growing in prevalence. Samsung could also become a leading provider of virtual personal assistants and speech recognition software … [and] Samsung would gain access to a customer base of 750,000 voice-enabled televisions, 250M voice-enabled phones, 20M voice-enabled cars, 1M copies of Dragon desktop and 800M mobile keyboards.

Why Siri Matters

While losing Siri to the hands of their competition would be a blow now, it would be catastrophic in the future as it would put Apple far behind their two biggest competitors, Samsung and Google, in the world of voice interfacing. That spells trouble in a big way when seen in the context of the next big development in mobile computing - wearable. The thing about wearable is that it defies the typical interface - no more keyboards, and no more touchscreens (sorry Apple Watch!)

Future interface will be via voice, whether you're talking to your glasses, your thermostat, watch, car, teapot, phone, and on and on. For Apple to stumble in this crucial space would be a tactical blunder, and I think Samsung and Carl Icahn know it.
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http://seekingalpha.com/article/2533545-a-seriously-siri-less-apple

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance jumped at a little after 12:30. See no news -- must be rumor??

From yesterday:

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Nuance Expands its Consulting Services with New Offerings for Hospitals and Health Systems

Launches Clintegrity 360 Compliance Services to Address Complex Coding Challenges and Increase Coding Accuracy

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced it has expanded its healthcare consulting services that help organizations improve clinical documentation and coding accuracy, optimize quality outcomes and reduce risk of claims denials and penalties. The newest offering, Clintegrity 360 | Compliance Services, provides the management tools and training required to effectively monitor complex coding requirements, and leverage technology to avoid issues that may affect the reliability of hospital reimbursement.

"We've heard our clients' growing concerns about compliance, physician engagement, ICD-10 and shifting payment models and we are here to help," said Trace Devanny, president of the healthcare division, Nuance. "We've offered widely-successful consulting services for more than 20 years using proven clinical expertise, best practices and distinctive methodologies to help clients succeed. By broadening our consulting services, Nuance can collaborate more deeply with our healthcare clients as strategic partners to help them achieve their desired goals."

Nuance Clintegrity 360 | Compliance Services provide a customized set of educational and analytical offerings that deliver actionable strategies designed to help an organization improve the quality of coding data and flag potential areas of regulatory noncompliance. This new service provides a team of Nuance consultants to review clinical documentation and the accuracy of associated codes, develop targeted educational programs for staff, and advise on how to consistently use technology to deliver appropriate and compliant ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for inpatient claims. This includes use of Clintegrity 360 | Compliance software, and Facility Coding solutions.

Additionally, Nuance provides specialized Clintegrity 360 | ICD-10 Education and Services, which prepare the organization's coding workforce for more complex coding requirements while maintaining productivity and financial integrity. With the latest ICD-10 delay, many organizations are seeking educational courses to ensure that physicians, coders and clinical documentation specialists remain engaged in the transition and sustain their level of understanding through October 2015.

For more information on Nuance Consulting and Education Services, visit the Nuance booth #1105 at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) 2014 Convention and ExhibitSeptember 27-October 2 in San Diego or request more information at www.nuance.com/for-healthcare.

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com. Connect with Nuance on social media through the healthcare blog, What's next, as well as Twitter andFacebook.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release relating to future plans, events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward looking statements, including fluctuations in demand for the Nuance products, and the continued development of Nuance products. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation. Nuance disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document.

Source: Nuance Communications, Inc.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nuance-expands-its-consulting-services-with-new-offerings-for-hospitals-and-health-systems-20140929-00303#ixzz3EorwcZim
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NUAN

(UPDATE -- Nuance and Samsung rumor)

[chmcnfunds]

TalkTalk Reduces Call Center Costs Dramatically by Creating a More Human Customer Service Conversation with Nuance

TalkTalk Saves £3 Million in Just Three Months by Deploying Nuance's Natural Language Call Steering Solution

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced that TalkTalk has dramatically improved the customer service experience via Nuance's Natural Language Call Steering solution. As demonstrated through this video, customers calling in to TalkTalk for assistance can now simply speak naturally when prompted by the interactive voice response (IVR) system to immediately be routed to the most appropriate contact center agent, improving customer satisfaction with faster, easier service.

TalkTalk offers phone, broadband and mobile service and provides the fastest growing TV offering in the UK. The company partnered with Nuance to personalize the customer experience and reduce unnecessary call transfers and call times, putting an end to customer frustration. Since implementing Nuance's Natural Language Call Steering TalkTalk has reported:

A total cost saving of £3M in just three months of use, which includes:
a 16% reduction in misrouted calls
an average reduction in call time of 26 seconds, with some customer calls reduced by over 2 minutes
A call recognition accuracy rate of 94%, against a target of 70%; which further demonstrates the ease of use presented by the solution
ROI achieved in just 14 weeks
An increase in customer self-service of 28% that focused on allowing customers to more easily complete tasks such as ordering products
Nuance's Call Steering enables callers to use their own words to express the reason for their call. Previously, TalkTalk customers were required to listen and respond to a series of phone menus with lengthy prompts that unnecessarily extended the calls, acting as a barrier between callers and what they needed. With Call Steering, callers are presented with an IVR prompt, such as "What can we help you with today?" and callers can answer naturally using their own terms. The system recognizes the caller's intent and quickly routes each call to the appropriate agent or self-service based on hundreds of unique call paths, something that would be impossible to do quickly or accurately with menu trees. Nuance is also facilitating continuous improvement of TalkTalk's new system, enabling TalkTalk to better understand its customers' needs through tracking caller trends and identifying changes within areas of their business.

Eoin Power, Head of Contact Strategy & Planning at TalkTalk said: "We wanted to handle incoming calls in the most efficient manner to make the experience as fast and convenient as possible for customers. This resulted in one of the most successful deployments of the call steering technology in the UK and Ireland. The focused, collaborative approach we undertook with Nuance meant we could test and learn together in a safe environment during the process of designing the IVR. Our return on investment was gained in just 14 weeks, compared to the 12 months we had planned for. We now have the support from senior stakeholders to roll the project out further."

"TalkTalk has seen significant benefits from their deployment of Nuance Natural Language Call Steering in a very short amount of time," said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Division, Nuance. "Their IVR system boasts strong accuracy, allowing calls to be routed correctly, very quickly. This provides a more convenient experience for the customer and a more efficient process for TalkTalk through increased automation, reduced call duration, and fewer agent-to-agent transfers."

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: Nuance Communications, Inc.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/talktalk-reduces-call-center-costs-dramatically-by-creating-a-more-human-customer-service-20140918-00243#ixzz3Dfocei5i
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NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance Communications : ING Introduces a Voice-Controlled Mobile Banking App Powered by Nuance

ING Netherlands Turns to Nuance Nina to Create Innovative, Hands-free Banking Experience with 'Inge'

BURLINGTON, Mass., - September 16, 2014 -

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that ING Netherlands has turned to Nuance's voice and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to power Inge, the new voice feature of ING Netherlands' mobile banking app. ING Netherlands is leveraging Nuance's Nina, the intelligent virtual assistant for customer service, to offer an innovative, simple and hands-free alternative for their customers to do mobile banking. With the addition of Inge to the ING mobile app, ING customers will be able to simply speak via a human-like conversational interface to control the mobile banking app. ING Netherlands is the first bank to offer such a voice-controlled mobile app in Europe, with the new release being made available in mid-September.

Inge uses the capabilities in Nuance Nina, a platform that enables intelligent natural language understanding (NLU) and text-to-speech interfaces for mobile apps. ING Netherlands customers can engage in a natural conversation in order to more easily and efficiently conduct their mobile banking transactions, as opposed to tapping through multiple menus and screens on their mobile devices. The feature gives them the opportunity to check for example their balance or enter an account number by voice. Following the initial release, ING will update the app to also include Nuance voice biometrics to allow users to securely access the app through the unique sound of their voice. Nuance secure voice biometrics technologies replace PINs, making the mobile banking experience a fully hands-free and transformative experience.

"The mobile phone is more and more becoming the starting point for banking today. Already 1.9 million of our 8 million customers use our Mobile Banking App today. It is our intent to deliver an easy experience for our customers who are accessing their accounts via our mobile app. Nuance has been a terrific partner in helping us to achieve that goal," said Max Mouwen, director Internet and Mobile, ING Netherlands. "When it comes to speech and natural language, as well as voice biometrics, Nuance was able to deliver the best technology and services to create a truly innovative solution for our customers. The result is a remarkable, human experience that puts our customers in control, saves them time, and makes sense for our business as well."

"Mobile devices and apps, combined with Nuance virtual assistant technologies, provide unprecedented opportunities for enterprises to engage with customers in an intelligent and natural way," said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division. "With the addition of Nina capabilities to their popular mobile app, ING Netherlands is not only delivering a more natural and efficient experience for their existing customers with Inge, but also a strong reason for new customers to join ING - an innovative, fully mobile banking experience."

ING Netherlands joins a growing number of leading brands around the world that have turned to Nina to reinvent their customer experience through an intelligent virtual assistant, enabling more human conversations with customers - within mobile apps and web sites. Nina leverages Nuance's unparalleled technology leadership and expertise in virtual assistant and AI technologies to deliver a compelling, multi-channel, automated customer service experience for the consumer and the enterprise. Nina is available from Nuance in 43 spoken and 13 text languages. Nina can also be extended with Nuance's voice biometrics to provide a secure and convenient way for consumers to verify their identity by voice. For more information about Nina, and to see Nina in action, please go to www.nuance.com/go/nina.

For media: Nuance will be participating in the Opus Research Intelligent Assistants Conference today at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Nuance executives and customers will be speaking about the value of virtual assistants for the customer experience and what the future holds for this rapidly-evolving market. To speak with a Nuance executive about today's news, or to attend the conference, please contact Casey Bush at 949-608-0276 or Erica Hill at 781-888-5518.

About Nuance Communications, Inc
ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin, currently offering banking, investment, life insurance (NN Group) and retirement services. We draw on our experience and expertise, our commitment to excellent service and our global scale to meet the needs of a broad customer base, comprising individuals, families, small businesses, large corporations, institutions and governments. Our strengths include our relatively high customer satisfaction levels, solid financial position, multi-channel distribution strategy and international network. For more information please visit www.ing.com.

About Nuance Communications, Inc
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Nuance Contact:
US
Erica Hill
[phone]
[e-mail]

EMEA
Vanessa Richter
[phone]
[e-mail]
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NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance’s Dragon Voicemail-to-Text Platform to Join Deutsche Telekom’s Mobilbox Pro Service

By Business Wire, August 28, 2014, 08:00:00 AM EDT

Voicemail-to-Text Combines the Speed and Convenience of Text-Based Messaging with the Personal Touch of Voicemail - Enabling Deutsche Telekom Subscribers to Receive Their Messages, Their Way

BURLINGTON, Mass. & AACHEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced that its successful Dragon Voicemail-to-Text platform has been chosen by leading network operator, Deutsche Telekom, to enrich its existing Mobilbox Pro service branded "Spracherkennung," translated to "Speech Recognition" in English, for its subscribers in Germany. By transcribing voicemail messages into easily accessible text messages, clearly arranged within the platform's app, Deutsche Telekom will keep people connected to friends, family and colleagues no matter where they are.

Deutsche Telekom's service, Mobilbox Pro, already allows subscribers to access their voicemails directly on their device via an app without having to call into a separate service to retrieve them. And now, with Dragon Voicemail-to-Text, subscribers can simply read their messages, with the option to listen as desired. From there, people can send or forward voice messages as text messages.

Nuance's recent third-party survey conducted by Research Now exploring the text messaging and voicemail habits of mobile smartphone users found that a majority of respondents valued the combination of text-based and voice-based messaging options as opposed to standalone offerings.

"Staying connected virtually anywhere at any time must be effortless - the mobile services people depend on shouldn't slow them down. People need to keep moving. With Mobilbox Pro's speech recognition capabilities, we make it possible for our subscribers to do just that - stay connected and informed at every moment of the day," said Christoph Jung, Business Owner Voicemail, Deutsche Telekom.

"In a world where voicemails are often ignored or forgotten, people need a more modern, flexible way to stay connected," said Daniel Faulkner, senior vice president, Mobile, Nuance. "Nuance's Dragon Voicemail-to-Text gives carriers like Deutsche Telekom - the first voicemail-to-text carrier in Germany - the ability to deliver state-of-the-art voice services that are in tune with subscribers' demands."

Availability

Deutsche Telekom's Mobilbox Pro is already available. Users will receive a download notification for the app update. Within the new app, the Voicemail-to-Text feature is bookable via in-app purchase. A 30-day trial of the service will be free at launch with an eventual annual fee of 0,99 €. Mobilbox Pro is preinstalled on every Android phone sold by Deutsche Telekom and downloadable for free from the Google Play Store.

About Nuance Dragon Voice-to-Text

Nuance's Dragon Voicemail-to-Text delivers the best of both worlds by turning voicemails into text messages or email messages that people can both read and listen to, as well as save or forward - whenever, wherever - leveraging Nuance's leading voice technology as part of Nuance Cloud Services. Dragon Voicemail-to-Text delivers transcribed voicemail, along with the original audio, to the mobile phone. This process streamlines the communication flow, saving both time and money. People never have to write down the information from a voicemail; important numbers, names and addresses are easy to find, easy to access and will never get lost.

Nuance's Dragon Voice-to-Text is part of Nuance's broad portfolio of voice innovations that continues to define a new generation of intelligent systems and personal assistant technologies, which includes Dragon NaturallySpeaking for PC, Dragon Dictate for Mac, Dragon Mobile Assistant for Android, Dragon Assistant for Intel-inspired Ultrabooks, Dragon Dictation, Dragon Drive, Dragon TV, Nuance Voice Ads and Swype. With Nuance technology, people experience a more human conversation with the world's best phones, tablets, computers, cars, TVs, apps and services from leading manufacturers and operators.

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks, registered trademarks or brands of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and other countries. All other companies or product names are the property of the respective owners.

The statements in this press release relating to future plans or future events or service, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. These could involve particular market trends, competition factors and other risks described in the documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results, events and services may vary significantly from the forecasts. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward- looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation.

Source: Nuance Communications

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nuances-dragon-voicemail-to-text-platform-to-join-deutsche-telekoms-mobilbox-pro-service-20140828-00226#ixzz3BhEypkde
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NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Interesting response to the article:

Quote:
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Dr. Wheaton
Comments (182)| + Follow | Send Message
If you read the standstill agreement, it specifically restricts Icahn from making any publlic comments and forces all efforts to happen via his board participation. Thus, Icahn's public silence is no mystery.

The poison pill expires August 19 and it will be interesting to see what happens next. Icahn may instead be focused on the company's annual
meeting (probably in late January 2015) and using his leverage to fight for changes internally or (if needed) to initiate a proxy fight starting in October. The proxy fight proposals or nominations must be received between September 27, 2014 and October 27, 2014 so we will know very soon if Icahn will resign his seats on the board. Ricci most definitely wants to keep Icahn on the board and doing so will require compromise.

Here are some things to ponder:

Icahn can...
1) ask the board to let him buy more shares (like HLF did). Not a good idea IMO to allow Icahn to lower his cost-basis.
2) make a buyout offer (directly to the board)
3) fight privately (via the board) to have directors replaced
4) fight privately (via the board) to force Ricci out as chairman
5) pressure company to sell assets, pay down more debt
6) block any acquisitions
7) wait until poison pill expires, then resign from the board, and accumulate more shares then fight for control to remove CEO, BOD or even make a public tender offer. If this happens, I think we'll see $22+ in Oct-Nov timeframe. A $22 buyout offer from Icahn represents 30% premium over today's price and and more than 22% gain for Icahn's shares. A $22 buyout offer would be rejected of course but it could force Ricci to accept a sales process.
8) block another poison pill, making it possible for someone else to acquire over 20% under Icahn's approx cost-basis of $18.20
9) encourage a sale of company
10) withhold votes at shareholder's meeting

He cannot wage a proxy fight while on the BOD and he cannot make public statements, but Icahn certainly has some leverage and options available to effect changes. With patience, I believe NUAN could easily be worth $24-28
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NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Didn't post the negative SA article, but here is a positive one just out:
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Nuance: It's All About The Debt Redemption Baby

Aug. 13, 2014 11:46 AM ET | 1 comment | About: Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN)

Disclosure: The author is long NUAN. (More...)
Summary

Nuance’s $250 million 2027 Convertible Notes redemption is either a signal of an imminent buyout or a red herring.
Shareholders win in 2 of 3 possible motivations behind the debt redemption.
Stock could be worth over $23 or 40% upside in the next 6 months.

Another quarter of missed expectations and poor transparency by Nuance (NASDAQ:NUAN) has punished the stock by 10% this week. It is now trading at $16.50 per share, a 18% discount from its 2014-high reached on June 18th when WSJ reported that Nuance was in talks with potential buyers on June 16th. Link to WSJ Article

If one read between the lines and disregarded the noise during Monday's earnings, a very interesting event was announced which could signal a buyout is on the horizon: Nuance is calling back all of their $250 million, 2027 Convertible Notes (at 2.7%).

It is my belief that the redemption of these notes is in anticipation of a buyout in the near future. It would help the acquirer save over $50 million from the convertible liability if the company is bought for over $23.36 per share.

Info on 2027 Convertible Notes

Issued in 2007, $250 million of Callable Convertible Debt at 2.7% NUAN 10-Q, pg. 35 filed 8/11/2014
Initial conversion price of $19.47 per share
If current price equates to 120% of conversion price or $23.36 for 20 days in the last fiscal quarter. Holder can convert bonds into shares.
One of the last times the convert was "in the money" was back in late 2012. NUAN 10-Q, pg. 13 filed on 2/8/2013
What about the 2031 Convertible Debt?

The debt is not convertible until the shares reach approximately $32.30.

3 Motivations to Buy Back the 2027 Debt

Lower Interest Expense and Leverage
I am going to debunk this right away. $250 million is a small portion of their debt and only costs 2.7% per year. That is some cheap debt... To really save interest expense, they could retire Senior Notes costing 5.3% that is due in 2020.
Management is extremely bullish on the company and believe the stock will go up…eventually. Calling back the debt will save them millions of dollars in convertible liabilities.
A buyout offer is on the table and calling back the debt will save the future acquirer ~$50 million from a debt to share convert.
Shareholders will win big if #(2) or #(3) come to fruition. Motivation # (1) will not create value for Nuance.

My Top 2 Possible Suitors
Nuance's growth pipeline features businesses (healthcare solutions, virtual assistants, security, voice ads) that would fit well in IBM and Oracle's portfolio of businesses while innovating current services.

IBM (IBM) - A long time partner of Nuance could energize WATSON cloud business and take out a potential disruptor at the same time.

Oracle (ORCL) - Has been integrating Nuance technologies into its productivity apps, their technology would be great asset to their portfolio of enterprise businesses.

In my opinion, if Nuance were to be acquired, it would be bought in the range of $23.50 to $32.

Acquisition Price Target: $25.30 per share
Price-to-Sales:
4x
Total Deal Value (including debt) ~$10 billion
If I am correct, all of the unintelligible operating metrics that the Paul Ricci & Company has divulged through the years will be forgiven (if you follow Nuance closely, you know what I mean). Nuance management gift-wrapped the ultimate "tell" for the diligent investor. I will let time be the judge.
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http://seekingalpha.com/article/2418935-nuance-its-all-about-the-debt-redemption-baby

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Back up to the level it was pre-market before the negative SA article. Wouldn't think SA would have that much impact on a large stock. Did see a number of tweets referencing it. Maybe coincidental.
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NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

From Fly on the Wall:

11:52 EDT NUAN Nuance shares fall over 10% as Q3 results, guidance disappoints

Shares of voice and language solutions provider Nuance (NUAN) are sharply lower after the company's guidance missed analysts' expectations. WHAT'S NEW: The company reported third quarter earnings per share 27c on revenue of $486.8M, against analysts' estimates of 27c and $498.56M, respectively. The company's Q3 non-GAAP operating margin was 23.5%, down from 28.1% in the year-ago period. Despite the underperformance in revenue, Nuance said its EPS came in at the midpoint of its guidance range as a result of cost reductions and expense control. The company also reported year over year bookings growth of 17% and deferred revenue growth of 32%. WHAT'S NOTABLE: Looking ahead, Nuance forecast fourth quarter EPS of 24c-29c and $500M-$520M, both falling well short of analysts' estimates of 34c and $540.49M, respectively. The comany also sees fiscal year 2014 EPS of $1.03-$1.08 on revenue of $1.97B-$1.99B, below estimates of $1.13 and $2.02B. In prepared remarks, the company said the transition to recurring revenue models continue to happen faster than it had anticipated, weighing heavily on near-term revenue growth and a bookings growth rate for recurring revenue type that is higher than overall bookings growth rate. ANALYST OPINION: This morning, Craig-Hallum shared its concerns about the competitive and operating environments in both Healthcare and Mobile segments. Although the firm said bookings were not as bad as the top-line miss suggests, Nuance's results open "another series of questions as to how far we really are through this transition." It maintained its Hold rating and cautious stance on the company. Canaccord analysts, meanwhile, view the sell-off as an over-reaction and believes the higher booking numbers make the stock relatively inexpensive. The firm is confident in Nuance's pipeline heading into Q4 and 2015. PRICE ACTION: In late-morning trading, shares of Nuance dropped $1.94, or 10.72%, to $16.16.
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NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Why Nuance Communications (NUAN) Stock Is Declining Today

BY Tony OwusuFollow| 08/12/14 - 10:24 AM EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Nuance Communications (NUAN_) shares are down -10.9% to $16.12 on Tuesday after the speech recognition technology company reported a second quarter net loss of $54.2 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, that was much wider loss than the $35 million, or 11 cents a share, from a year earlier.

TheStreet Ratings team rates NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS INC (NUAN) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow."
__________________________________________
http://www.thestreet.com/story/12841926/1/why-nuance-communications-nuan-stock-is-declining-today.html?cm_ven=RSSFeed&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tsc%2Ffeeds%2Frss%2Flatest-stories+%28TheStreet.com+Latest+Headlines%29

NUAN

[velcro]

Yes, Buying Opportunity. Been watching this for a year, and bought today.

[chmcnfunds]

Back in Nuance. Hoping that 200 DMA of $16.19 will provide bounce opportunity:



NUAN

[Stockexpertpro]

$NUAN Another Debt Loaded POS Losing Millions That is going to end up just like $NIHD Worthless POS Strong Sell

[iheartweimers]

Form 10-Q out, declining revenues caused AH drop of $1.67
or 9.23%, to $16.43. Terrible blow as stock had gained .19
today to close at $18.10. Management draws salaries like
they were outselling Amazon. Apple is going to dump this
company just for that.

[jeslookin]

One thing is for sure. There will be a bidding war. Aapl has deep pockets so I think I know how this one ends.

[kittzelle]

Don't thing we going to see anything else till more news about the possible bidding war or buyout.

[kittzelle]

Will be watching to maybe add more today.

[eastunder]

Nuance Rises on Report of Sale Talks With Samsung

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-16/nuance-communications-rises-on-report-of-sale-talks-with-samsung.html?cmpid=yhoo


Nuance Communications Inc. (NUAN), the maker of speech-recognition software, rose the most in more than five years after reports that the company is considering a sale and has talked to potential buyers.

Nuance has recently spoken about a possible sale with Samsung Electronics Co. and private-equity firms, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Nuance, which counts billionaire Carl Icahn as its largest shareholder, rose 9.7 percent to $18.76 at the close in New York, the biggest one-day increase since January 2009.

Richard Mack, a spokesman for Nuance, declined to comment on the report. Representatives for South Korea’s Samsung didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nuance, which has a market value of almost $6 billion, has been under pressure from activist shareholder Icahn, who took a stake in the company in April 2013 and has built up his shares. As of March 31, funds controlled by Icahn had a combined 19 percent stake in Nuance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“A sale is very possible when an asset is undervalued,” John Bright, an analyst with Avondale Partners in Nashville, Tennessee, said in an interview. “It’s undervalued given not only their competitive position within the speech-as-an-interface market, but also for traditional metrics -- cash flow and enterprise value.”

Cheaper Stock

Even after today’s stock gain, Nuance is trading at about 17 times its cash flow over the past four quarters, cheaper than about 60 percent of U.S. application software companies with market values higher than $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bright said a sale of Nuance would probably fetch $25 to $30 a share. He has the equivalent of a buy rating on the stock.

Nuance Chief Executive Officer Paul Ricci is seeking to revive growth as the Burlington, Massachusetts-based company expands in voice-recognition tools that can be used over the Web and on mobile devices. The company has reported a net loss for six straight quarters, and the stock had fallen 16 percent in the last two years as of last week.

The company last month projected revenue for the third quarter of $488 million to $508 million, below analysts’ estimates at the time for $527.5 million.

[guttruck]

will there be a sell off? dip tomorrow possible

[kittzelle]

Noone interested?

http://seekingalpha.com/news/1802243-more-on-nuance

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance has been moving almost in tandem with Apple (insert aapl and set to one month):

[url]https://www.google.com/finance?q=nuan&ei=umyHU8jhK6Hm6AH5xoCAAw
[/tag]

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

SAR flipped, MACD crossover and many positive indicators:



NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

RANsquawk sources note Nuance Communications (NUAN) may have received a buyout proposal from Microsoft (MSFT), in the USD 19-20/Shr ...

ransquawk.com (no direct link)

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance Communications Up on Takeover Talk, Options See Action

by Mark MelinMay 23, 2014, 12:23 pm

The brain behind Apple's Siri voice recognition system appears to be receiving brisk attention today

Is Carl Icahn finally having his way with Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN), the company that is said to be the brain behind Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Siri voice recognition system?

After appointing son to board, Icahn is optimistic
Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is up significantly today amid brisk volume on takeover talk. ValueWalk reported when Icahn upped his stake from 9 percent to 16 percent in August of 2013 and Tabinda Hussain wondered out loud if Icahn was planning a coup. Then in December 2013 ValueWalk reported Icahn upped his stake, adding 50,000 shares and buying on a relative drawdown at $14.2 per share. The December purchase followed Icahn gaining two board seats in October, one of the seats when to Icahn’s son Brett.

At the time of the younger Icahn’s appointment, Carl tweeted “I’m optimistic their impact at NUAN will be similar to The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN">NASDAQ:HAIN), where stock went from $20.20 to $79.56 over the 3 years they sat on the board.” The stock began to dive near the start of October, hit a low near Icahn’s December entry price at $14.2 per share, then bounced, currently trading at $15.72.

Nuance stock moves higher with noted options action
Today’s move higher in Nuance stock was noted on volume in not only the stock, but also the call options, which are often an indicator of insider or hedge fund interest in a firm. With the December increase in stock, Icahn had upped his stake in Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) at 18.72 percent. Icahn had signed a “standstill agreement” at that time that limited his acquisition to no more than 20 percent.

In December the software company had reported disappointing earnings. Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN)’s earnings per share slipped 41% year over year, while revenue disappointed at $472.2 million as against the Wall Street estimate of $489.56 million during a period of time when Sales were down 4% on the year.

The Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) investment comes as Icahn also has exposure to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Computer, where he has been advocating a share buyback that would likely boost the stock price, as previously reported.

Speech recognition software company
In October Nuance announced that its FreeSpeech voice biometrics technology was used by Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS">NYSE:BCS) (LON:BARC) Wealth & Investment Management division in its call center. The technology authenticates users while attempting to engage in natural conversation.

In December Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) announced that its voice recognition platform supported the Mandarin Chinese language. The software also works on various mobile platforms, such as Android platform, allowing drivers to speak to make calls, find, play and change music with their voice, as well as obtain directions and have the latest news articles read aloud to the driver.
_________________________________
http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/05/nuance-communications-takeover-talk-options-see-action/

NUAN

[beachcomber1]

No problem whatsoever.

[chmcnfunds]

Hope you don't mind me providing the link:

http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/NUAN;ORCLid2014303/NUAN;ORCL-Nuance-says-Oracle-selects-Nuance-voice-and-language-offerings

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Aside from any rumor, a nice chart setup. SAR flipped today and MACD crossed over barely yesterday and notably today, among other positive indicators:



NUAN

[beachcomber1]

NUAN Rumor: Nuance strength attributed to takeover speculation :theflyonthewall.com

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance Signs Agreement with Oracle to Add Voice Capabilities to Wide Range of Oracle Mobile Apps

Nuance Cloud Services to Significantly Enhance Mobile Productivity and Convenience for Oracle Applications for ERP, SCM, CRM, and HCM, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud Service, Oracle RightNow Cloud Service and More

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that Oracle® has selected Nuance voice and language offerings for a broad set of Oracle mobile apps. Under the worldwide and multi-year agreement, Oracle will use Nuance Cloud Services to add speech recognition and synthesis to certain mobile apps that support Oracle Applications for ERP, SCM, CRM, and HCM, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud Service, Oracle RightNow Cloud Service and Oracle Taleo Cloud Service, among others.

“Working with Nuance, we are also leading the way in using speech interfaces to make it easier and more natural to interact with enterprise solutions.”

As the workforce becomes more mobile, suppliers of enterprise applications face the challenge of making users as productive on the go as they are at their desktops. Despite significant advancements in mobile application design, a gap between desktop and mobile productivity often remains. Nuance envisions a workplace in which employees will be able to utilize state-of-the-art voice and language understanding capabilities to access and use enterprise applications in mobile environments – providing the same or even better efficiency as through their desktops. By leveraging voice technologies, Nuance believes it can significantly cut employee learning curves and improve productivity for mobile users.

“Mobile smart phones and tablets are quickly becoming the leading devices for interacting with enterprise applications, and Oracle has led the way through our broad set of mobile apps,” added Alan Fothergill, vice president, Oracle Applications Development. "Working with Nuance, we are also leading the way in using speech interfaces to make it easier and more natural to interact with enterprise solutions.”

Nuance’s speech recognition and natural language understanding technologies power some of the world’s largest consumer and enterprise solutions today, with more than ten billion transactions processed through Nuance cloud platforms. With proven technology, leadership, and unsurpassed speech experience, Nuance cloud solutions enable more human-like speech recognition experiences for nearly any device and platform, in more than 40 languages.

“Our work with Oracle promises to deliver groundbreaking capabilities to the Enterprise by using speech to deliver rapid access to information within Oracle solutions, to make it easier to place information into those systems,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Division, Nuance. “The future is limitless for transformative employee experiences and for improved quality, velocity and simplicity of enterprise information exchanged between employees and their organizations.”

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a Gold level member in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

About Nuance Communications, Inc
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts
Nuance Communications Contact:
Erica Hill, 781-888-5518
[e-mail]
or
Global Results Communications Contact:
Casey Bush/Lora Friedrichsen, 949-608-0276
[e-mail]
______________________________________
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140521005112/en/Nuance-Signs-Agreement-Oracle-Add-Voice-Capabilities#.U3yWm_ldUWk

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance Communications Upgraded to Buy by Standpoint Research (NUAN)

Posted by Wayne Rhoads on May 16th, 2014

Nuance Communications Inc.(NASDAQ:NUAN) was upgraded by analysts at Standpoint Research to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Analyst Ratings.Net reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Analysts at Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Nuance Communications from $15.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Separately, analysts at Canaccord Genuity reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Nuance Communications in a research note on Friday, May 9th. They now have a $20.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $22.00. Finally, analysts at Zacks downgraded shares of Nuance Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.14.

Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) traded up 0.26% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $15.24. 980,988 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Nuance Communications has a 52 week low of $13.00 and a 52 week high of $20.01. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $16.25 and its 200-day moving average is $15.5. The company’s market cap is $4.825 billion. Nuance Communications also saw a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 32,270,858 shares, a decline of 4.7% from the April 15th total of 33,875,884 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,506,898 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 12.9 days. Approximately 10.5% of the shares of the company are short sold.


Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) last released its earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $475.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $484.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Nuance Communications will post $1.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Nuance Communications, Inc is a provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers globally.
______________________________________
http://zolmax.com/investing/nuance-communications-upgraded-to-buy-by-standpoint-research-nuan/267997/

[eastunder]

I never bought it back like I thought I might, so I'm actually still out of it. Still waiting. Still keeping an eye on it. Still undecided whether I want to add it back into a portfolio or not.

I understand your thoughts on selling before earnings. :)

A few of mine have been sold right before earnings for that same reason. It's too unpredictable.

Seems like their Q was okay and accepted well. No blow out but I don't think we were expecting one anyway.

Current news:

http://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=nuan

[chmcnfunds]

Thanks. With the way Internet techs are being hammered over results and the trading during the day I went ahead and sold prior to close. Will be anxious to see what comes out of the CC. Nuance really broke down the last two days.

NUAN

[eastunder]

NUAN: Q2 Adj EPS 28c vs 34c Beats 23c Est

Thursday , May 08, 2014 16:08ET


QUARTER RESULTS
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN) reported Q2 results ended March 2014. Q2 Revenues were $475.65M; -1.73% vs yr-ago; MISSING revenue consensus by -1.76%. Adjusted Q2 EPS was 28c; -17.65% vs yr-ago; BEATING earnings consensus by +21.74%.

Q2 RESULTS      Reported      Year-Ago     Y/Y Chg      Estimate    SURPRISE 
 ----------  ------------  ------------  ----------  ------------  ---------- 
 Revenues:       $475.65M      $484.03M      -1.73%      $484.17M      -1.76% 
 ----------  ------------  ------------  ----------  ------------  ---------- 
 Adj EPS:             28c           34c     -17.65%           23c     +21.74% 
 ----------  ------------  ------------  ----------  ------------  ----------

[chmcnfunds]

From the Fly:

News Breaks
May 8, 2014
14:14 EDT NUAN Nuance technical comments ahead of results
The shares are in neutral mode ahead of earnings after the bell. In the prior three months the shares have also traded flat except for one brief upside spike over the last two weeks of March. On a daily chart a hand-drawn support line gives us $15.50 as an important support level. On worse than expected results or guidance on a band of increasing disappointments, support would be at $14.77, $14.08, and $13. The latter is the 52-week low. On an upside surprise in results or guidance, there is a large percent of the float short at over 13.5%. That could provide ample fuel for a short-squeeze if the fundamental news supports it. Resistance levels to watch as upside objectives on an increasing band of unexpected positives are at $16.69, $17.57, and $18.13. If we look at a 2-year chart the $18 level pops into prominence as prior and rather strong support. Retaking the $18 area would therefore be bullish for price. The $18 area is the zone from which price collapsed in October 2013, leading up to the 52-week low in November 2013.

http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/NUANid2008218/NUAN-Nuance-technical-comments-ahead-of-results

NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

So any insights on the earnings? Looks like it has been a mixed bag of recent:

Date Quarter Consensus Estimate Actual EPS Revenue Estimate Actual Revenue Release Link Conference Call Details Share
11/25/2013 Q4 $0.29 $0.30 $489.56 million $472.20 million View Listen View Tweet This Announcement Share This Announcement on StockTwits
8/6/2013 Q3 2013 $0.32 $0.34 $487.64 million $490.80 million View Listen View Tweet This Announcement Share This Announcement on StockTwits
4/30/2013 Q2 2013 $0.40 $0.34 $516.53 million $484.00 million View N/A View Tweet This Announcement Share This Announcement on StockTwits
2/7/2013 Q1 2013 $0.44 $0.35 $492.42 million $492.40 million View Listen View Tweet This Announcement Share This Announcement on StockTwits
11/19/2012 Q412 $0.48 $0.51 $496.91 million $468.80 million View N/A View

http://www.analystratings.net/stocks/NASDAQ/NUAN/

______________________________

NUAN

[eastunder]

You're welcome.

[chmcnfunds]

From stoxline:

"Our rating system posted a BUY today, upgraded from lower rating. This stock seems to be ready for a new bullish move. If you bought, continue to hold stock until SELL signal. You are relatively safe to buy now, a new upward move is expected."

Also, thanks for the tip. Been there in the past and had sorta forgotten about it. Great features!

NUAN

[eastunder]

Here's one I tend to use often

http://www.stoxline.com/quote.php?symbol=nuan

[chmcnfunds]

Don't go to Barchart often, but just checked. They have STRONG BUY:

http://www.barchart.com/quotes/stocks/NUAN

Also, Fool just released a blog:

_____________________________________

2 Reasons Why Nuance Could Be a Good Buy
Sharda Sharma, The Motley Fool - Motley Fool - 20 mins ago

Article Comments (0)


Related Stocks
NUAN - Nuance Communications

Sym Last Chg Pct Volume
NUAN 16.32 +0.23 +1.43% 1,741,149
AAPL 591.83 +1.74 +0.29% 6,748,721
Speech-recognition technology provider Nuance Communications lost 5% in April this year. The company's shares were under pressure as there was a correction in the stock market. However, Nuance is doing well as far as the business is concerned. Its health-care and automotive segments, along with mobile, are driving growth. The company's recent innovations and strategic moves should help it do well in the future, while its Apple partnership is another tailwind.

Healthcare and automotive on a roll
Nuance's health-care segment is witnessing good demand because of solutions such as Dragon Medical. The company is well-positioned in health care with a number of new products in its pipeline. Nuance recently announced that it has enhanced its PowerScribe 360 platform. As a result of this new addition, it has improved the capability of the solution with online workflow for routing reports to support staff members or back-end service providers. This would help them in correcting transcripts and get the data from the reports recorded correctly in electronic health records and insurance claims.

With this new addition, Nuance expects a boost in its market share in radiology imaging. It claims to have 60% market share in this area. Further, it has a strong customer base of 1,600 facilities that produce around 60% of radiology images in the U.S. Hence, with the addition of more value to its offering in the health care segment, Nuance is definitely making the right move.

The speech recognition technology provider also has great expectations from its Clintegrity solution. Clintegrity is a clinical documentation process that provides an efficient way for clinicians to create complete and compliant clinical documentation. At the same time, the solution helps improve coding, downstream revenue cycle, and quality reporting processes. Nuance is gaining more customers for this solution and has won key contracts. According to management, the company recorded a number of important competitive wins for the Clintegrity Solution, without going into much detail.

The automotive segment of Nuance is also expected to be an important growth driver. Nuance had acquired Tweddle Connect for $80 million last year to enhance its connected car solution. With Tweddle Connect, Nuance is focused on delivering a better and smarter connected car experience. In addition, Nuance's Dragon Drive application is seeing good traction in the market and is gaining popularity. This application is being used by some top automakers such as Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Toyota, etc.

Mobile focus
Besides health care and automotive, Nuance is also trying to profit from the mobile market, and it certainly has the right partner to benefit from mobile growth. Apple uses Nuance's technology, so with an increase in sales of the iPhone, Nuance is in a solid position to benefit from the mobile market. Apple is planning to upgrade its product portfolio this year by bringing out a couple of large-screen iPhones.

According to various sources on the Internet, upcoming iPhones will come in 4.7- and 5.5-inch screen sizes. As a result, Apple will have a better chance of capitalizing on the growing market for big-screen phones. According to IDC, 20% of all smartphones shipped in China last year were five inches or larger. By 2017, this share is expected to grow to 50%.

Now that Apple has a deal with China Mobile in place, the company is making a smart move by developing a bigger iPhone as Chinese consumers clearly have a preference for large screen sizes. So, as Apple's addressable market grows, Nuance will benefit since it supplies its technology to the smartphone company.

Bottom line
Nuance's performance has not been very attractive in the last one year, with its shares down by almost 30%. But a turnaround cannot be ruled out in the future as the company is releasing new solutions. With growth in mobile, automotive, and health care, Nuance seems well positioned for the long run as it could deliver returns to patient investors.

The biggest thing to come out of Silicon Valley in years
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The article 2 Reasons Why Nuance Could Be a Good Buy originally appeared on Fool.com.
___________________________________

NUAN

[eastunder]

Guess I had better buy it back. :)

[chmcnfunds]

Riding it right up. SAR flipped, TRIX crossed, and more. Almost every indicator positive. Now if the overall market could stay calm we might be in for a treat.

NUAN

[eastunder]

Nuance to Release Q2 FY 14 Results on May 8, 2014 After close
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nuance-release-q2-fy-14-120000394.html

[eastunder]

Plenty Of Gains Ahead For Companies Making Smartphones More Useful

http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/04/30/plenty-of-gains-ahead-for-companies-making-smartphones-more-useful/?partner=yahootix

[eastunder]

Nice move off of that 50day, eh?

[chmcnfunds]

Nuance doing well so far today. Maybe due to this report. No other public info.:

Equity Coverage on Software Equities -- Research on Nuance Communications, Adobe Systems, ANSYS, and SAP AG
Editor Note: For more information about this release, please scroll to bottom.

LONDON, May 1, 2014 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- LONDON, May 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
_________________________________
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equity-coverage-on-software-equities-research-on-nuance-communications-adobe-systems-ansys-and-sap-ag-2014-05-01

Chart looks poised:



NUAN

[chmcnfunds]

NUAN

[erdos47]

When will CI direct his energy to improving management and marketing to NUAN? Leave apple alone, forget about HLF and make something happen for NUAN

[Wildbilly]

NUANCE FORENSICS UNVEILED TO TRANSFORM LAW ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATIONS

Tickers: NUAN MSCI OTEX VEEV CSOD DWRE PANW JCOM

Built on Proven Voice Biometrics Technology from Nuance, New Forensics Offering Assists with Prosecution and Defense of Criminal Suspects
BURLINGTON, Mass., - March 18, 2014 - Nuance Communications, Inc., today announced the release of Nuance Forensics, a voice biometrics solution that assists law enforcement officials and forensic experts with criminal investigations, as well as with the prosecution and defense of suspects. This powerful tool uses Nuance's patented voice biometrics technology to assist in confirming or denying the identity of individuals based on audio files that are used during investigations. Unlike less precise identification techniques, such as a lineup, wherein suspects are identified based on a witness' visual memory, voice biometrics delivers accurate and unique identifying characteristics, akin to DNA and fingerprint evidence, to help assist investigations.

With Nuance Forensics, law enforcement and forensic officials no longer need to waste scarce investigative resources listening to hours of audio recordings collected during investigations. Instead, Nuance Forensics pinpoints the conversations of interest by filtering out from the audio recordings those that do not include the suspect's voice, accelerating the investigations and allowing law enforcement to focus on protecting citizens and fighting crime.

Top Company Interviews

Nuance Forensics is also modernizing the criminal justice process by enabling the use of reliable voice biometric technology to analyze audio evidence for the purposes of prosecution or defense of a suspect. Forensic experts, who once had to rely solely on the manual analysis of voice evidence, can now use voice biometric technology to accurately analyze these recorded voices entered into evidence. The data obtained through this forensics analysis with voice biometrics includes comprehensive and forensic standards-based reports, such as log likelihood ratios and tippet plots, to empirically establish the strength of the audio evidence in court.

"Nuance Forensics is truly transformative technology for law enforcement officials and forensic experts. They now have a powerful tool to assess voice evidence," said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager for the Nuance Enterprise Division. "Built upon proven, patented voice biometric technologies that are used worldwide, Nuance Forensics makes it easier to work with audio evidence during investigations as well as in court, and will allow officials to spend more time focusing their energies on what they do best - preventing and prosecuting criminal activity. Just as importantly, the same technologies will ensure that innocent people are effectively cleared of wrongdoing through empirical and accurate analysis of voice evidence."

http://www.twst.com/update/46980-nuance-communications-inc-nuance-forensics-unveiled-to-transform-law-enforcement-investigations

[Wildbilly]

That mideasttime.com link is dead

for me, yet I can still get the Homepage. I'll check again later.

Ophir Gottlieb's 'Option's Volume Blogspot' on Quant Derivatives has some interesting charts. His NUAN Skew chart of 3-10-2014 compared to the 3-14-2014 NUAN skew chart (halfway down in the following link) suggests there's a big risk change ahead.

Now see how elevated Mar has become to Apr, and, even more interesting, look how the skew shape has shifted. The Mar options reflect substantially more upside risk (potential) than downside. The order flow has, in a sense, broken the skew shape away from "normal." This can happen with order flow and revert back to "normal" quickly, which may mean a trading opportunity. Of course, it can also reflect a true (lasting) change in the risk profile. My best guess is the former.

Just some fun with other people's minds, I know nothing about quant derivatives. :)

http://optionvol.blogspot.com/2014/03/nuance-communications-nuan-skew-breaks.html

[eastunder]

Nuance Communications Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NUAN)

Posted by Hossein Forouzandeh on Mar 15th, 2014

(Where is this writer? I posted this post on the 14th. Yet - he wrote it on the "15th". Uhhh? LOL)


http://www.mideasttime.com/nuance-communications-target-of-unusually-large-options-trading-nuan-2/96741/


Shares of Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) were the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 20,746 call options on the stock, AnalystRatings.Net reports. This is an increase of approximately 575% compared to the average volume of 3,075 call options.

NUAN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Analysts at Zacks downgraded shares of Nuance Communications from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Separately, analysts at UBS AG reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Nuance Communications in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They now have a $17.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Nuance Communications in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.70.




Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) traded up 6.69% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $15.95. The stock had a trading volume of 14,443,579 shares. Nuance Communications has a 1-year low of $13.00 and a 1-year high of $23.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $15.25 and its 200-day moving average is $16.24. The company’s market cap is $5.059 billion.

Nuance Communications, Inc is a provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers globally.