Tech View: The real reason why Microsoft is buying Nuance

Paying $20 billion for a company that appeared to be past its best puts the software giant in a position to harness the full potential of the Dax product

Nuance was an early pioneer in speech recognition products but has been quiet for the past decade until it released the Dragon Ambient Experience, better known as Dax

Microsoft is in the process of making its second biggest acquisition ever. A year ago, the idea of Nuance being a high-profile purchase seemed far-fetched. The company had stagnated over the previous decade and appeared until recently to have been left behind in the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race.

Yet, thanks to one extremely successful product launch, the $19.7 billion purchase of the US computer software multinational may prove to be a smart piece of ...