Nuance still hungry, snaps up SNAPin Software in $180M deal

Nuance Communications Inc. isn’t letting a tiff with Zi Corp. stand in the way of a good spending spree.
The Burlington, Mass.-based speech recognition firm will fork over roughly $180 million in stock to pick up SNAPin Software, a Seattle-area developer of customer-care applications. The company hopes to integrate SNAPin’s technology – which allows mobile users to manage basic customer-service functions themselves via embedded software – with its own speech recognition-based CRM technology.
Nuance expects the acquisition to add 1 cent to 2 cents per share in non-GAAP earnings and a GAAP loss between 5 and 6 cents in its 2009 earnings.
“The integration of Nuance’s mobile solutions and enterprise speech solutions allows Nuance to sharply reduce the costs of customer care and improve the quality of customer experience for mobile operators and large enterprises,” said Steve Chambers, president Nuance’s mobile and consumer services business. “Leveraging the proliferation of mobile devices worldwide, Nuance’s solutions, combined with powerful technology from SNAPin, enable Nuance to deliver the economies of Web-based self-service to the growing expanse of mobile consumers.”
The pick-up extends a remarkable acquisition streak for Nuance, which has spent more than $1 billion on acquisitions in the past 18 months or so. The company last year pocketed competitor VoiceSignal in a $300 million deal as well as BeVocal for a cool $140 million, and Nuance is angling to snare Zi Corp. in an unsolicited $40.4 million takeover bid.