Nuance to acquire Vlingo

Nuance Communications has signed an agreement to acquire Vlingo, a virtual assistant that turns words into action by combining voice to text technology.

The two companies will combine their innovation and R&D expertise to deliver next-generation natural language interfaces across various markets and industries.

The consumer interest and demand for virtual assistant and voice enabled capabilities has increased in a major way recently, creating a $5 billion market opportunity that covers- phones, tablets, cars, televisions, navigation devices, music players, PCs and more.

''By acquiring Vlingo, we are able to accelerate the pace of innovation to meet this demand,'' said Mike Thompson, senior VP and GM, Nuance Mobile.

''As a result of our complementary research and development efforts, our companies are stronger together than alone. Our combined resources afford us the opportunity to better compete, and offer a powerful proposition to customers, partners and developers,'' said Dave Grannan, CEO, Vlingo.

Nuance, after the acquisition will be able to take advantage of the adoption of intelligent mobile assistants, where consumers, businesses, doctors and patients can engage in more human, natural interactions with devices and systems all over the world.