Tag Archives: Nuance Communications

How Intel's modded chips make your smartphone a better listener

For years, Intel and other chip makers designed processors like stock engines, dropping them into PCs, notebooks, and servers. Now, Intel has shown a newfound willingness to mod custom silicon for server customers, tweaking them with hardware and software accelerators to improve their performance.

These same servers are the ones powering cloud applications that include email and storage, but also interpret the gestures and spoken commands of smartphone users. On Monday, for example, Intel and Nuance Communications disclosed that Intel is developing an accelerator to improve Nuance’s voice recognition, which powers as many as 6 billion connected devices, according to Sean Brown, Nuance’s senior manager of innovation.

Intel has also developed custom chips for both eBay and Facebook, said Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel’s data center group, at an Intel datacenter event on Monday.

Intel
Intel’s Jason Waxman holds a server motherboard.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

What Are the Risks for Nuance Communications Investors?

By Andrew Tonner, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Nuance Communications currently sells for 21 times enterprise value. In this video, Andrew Tonner highlights some risks for this classic growth company:

  • Competition from big players, including Google and Microsoft.
  • The potential for dilution, as Nuance has grown through acquisitions.
  • The threat that small start-up companies are almost certainly going to be entering the market, hoping to offer the next “best in the business” technology.

Check out the video for more details.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/what-are-the-risks-for-nuance-communications-inves/

Profit From These Double-Digit Growers

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you’d like to add some big, technology-heavy stocks to your portfolio, the Direxion Nasdaq-100 Equal Weight Index ETF could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously.

The basics
ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The Nasdaq-100 ETF‘s expense ratio — its annual fee — is a relatively low 0.35%. The fund is very small, too, so if you’re thinking of buying, beware of possibly large spreads between its bid and ask prices. Consider using a limit order if you want to buy in.

This ETF is too new to have a sufficient track record to assess. As with most investments, of course, we can’t expect outstanding performances in every quarter or year. Investors with conviction need to wait for their holdings to deliver.

Why Nasdaq-100 and equal-weighting?
Nasdaq-100 stocks offer the benefits of large-cap status, which can provide a bit more stability than small caps, and they’re often in rapidly changing and growing industries, as well. Equal weighting is a sensible way to structure an index, as it doesn’t let the biggest companies overly influence the index’s returns, when the smaller ones, which might be able to grow faster, are left less powerful.

More than a handful of big, technology-heavy companies had strong performances over the past year. Seagate Technology surged 52%. Despite that, with a P/E ratio recently below 5, it’s still a seemingly cheap stock. It’s been whacked by the decline of the PC, but there’s still hope as cloud computing takes off and requires storage, and if solid-state drives grow in demand. Some don’t like the prospects for Seagate’s main drive business, though, and think Seagate is cheap, but not that attractive.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals jumped 48%, as it looks to expand the application of its promising cystic fibrosis drug, Kalydeco. Vertex recently entered into a deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb to pursue a treatment for Hepatitis C. 

Micron Technology gained 41%, with bulls seeing growth in tablets and smartphones driving demand for memory chips. The stock soared to a 52-week high recently, when Micron posted its second-quarter earnings. Bulls liked the report, seeing lower costs and rising margins hinting at a return to profitability soon. Micron’s purchase of Japanese manufacturer Elpida seems promising, boosting its capacity and its relationship with Apple. Bears worry about Micron losing market share, though.

Other companies didn’t do as well last year, but could see their fortunes change in the coming years. Nuance Communications , a speech-recognition software specialist, slid 10%. Many had expected the health-care field to offer great new opportunity for the company, but now, some worry about competitors

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/profit-from-these-double-digit-growers/

What Must Investors Watch With Nuance Communications?

By Andrew Tonner, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Nuance Communications  is a classic growth company. In this video, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner outlines issues investors need to watch, particularly since the company trades at 38 times earnings. First, the expansion of voice recognition technology into consumer electronics. Will this be well received? Given Siri‘s reception, consumers may not be quite ready to talk to their devices. Second, will original equipment manufacturers continue rolling out voice recognition tech in their devices, especially if consumers are less than thrilled about talking to their devices? Will the automotive industry in particular continue integrating this tech into their products? And what role will voice recognition technology play in smart TVs? Finally, the health care industry is a major customer for Nuance. Will cost pressures continue to push adaptation of voice recognition tech in hospitals and other health care facilities?

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/what-must-investors-watch-with-nuance-communicatio/

What's the Opportunity for Nuance Communications Investors Today?

By Andrew Tonner, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Speech recognition technology is moving into more parts of our lives. In this video, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner highlights various opportunities for Nuance Communications . You may be already familiar with Siri from Apple. Other tech companies — as well as car manufacturers — are also incorporating speech recognition technology. A less-known but big market is health care and the transcription of medical records. These opportunities have analysts projecting 15% growth rates for Nuance.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

3 Reasons to Sell Nuance Communications

By Andrew Tonner, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

In many ways, Nuance Communications has a bright future. But in this video, Andrew Tonner gives three reasons you may want to sell:

  • Competition from the likes of IBM, Google, and Microsoft.
  • Growth by acquisition, which can erode book value.
  • The continuing need to make more costly acquisitions.

Nuance is doing some great things, but as Andrew argues, it’s not a risk-free investment. Check out the video for more details.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

3 Reasons to Buy Nuance Communications

By Andrew Tonner, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

In the video below, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner explains three reasons why Nuance Communications will likely grow. First, its speech recognition technology is the best in the business. It can translate over 60 languages and dialects and thus has worldwide licensing potential. Second, speech recognition software is spreading into consumer electronics. Apple already uses Nuance with Siri — iTV and iWatch are likely to follow. Other companies are following suit. Finally, there is huge potential in the health care industry. As financial pressures grow, voice recognition technology could be used to cut labor costs.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

These Marketers Would Like a Word With You

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Will you engage with brands that talk back? Nuance Communications is betting that you will. Earlier this week, the company announced plans to help marketers create responsive ads using its voice recognition technology.

Can the strategy work? We’ve seen greater adoption of voice-activated computing thanks to Apple‘s  Siri interface for iOS devices. But there’s also a risk users will be turned off by devices that get too mouthy. The Motley Fool’s Erin Miller asks Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova for his perspective in the following video. Click to see the whole interview.

Do you believe voice ads are the future? Will they be more effective than traditional search ads? Leave a comment to let us know what you think about Nuance’s strategy and prospects.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Apple Needs to Move Siri From Beta to Indispensable

By Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool

Detroit Electric SP:01

Filed under:

Recent postings on Apple‘s jobs site show the company is looking to hire 12 new Siri developers — and it may be just in time. With Apple’s increased competition with Samsung and others, it’s not surprising the company may be looking to its personal assistant more indispensable.

Over the past few years, Siri has become an integral part Apple’s iOS, and although it has had some setbacks, it’s still arguably one Apple’s most innovative mobile features. But others have begun to catch up to Siri’s functionality — some even surpass it.

Source: Apple.

When Samsung launched its new Galaxy S4, the company came up with the tag line “life companion” for the phone and touted the S Voice feature. Similar to Siri, Samsung’s S Voice allows users to use voice commands to ask questions, place calls, and send texts. In comparison tests by The Christian Science Monitor, S Voice on the Galaxy S III was competitive with Siri, and even outperformed it at times.

The next contender, although not a voice personal assistant, is Google‘s new Android app Google Now. Google Now offers calendar reminders, location-based traffic updates and other time-sensitive information. The app was the recent source of a little controversy between Apple and Google. Google said the app wasn’t available on the iPhone yet because Apple hadn’t approved it, meanwhile Apple said the app was never sent to App Store for approval.

Apple’s strength in the personal assistant arena lies with its first-mover advantage in the space — particularly in the automotive industry. Apple is working with about a dozen automotive companies to integrate Siri into cars, dubbing it “Eyes Free.” When Siri is paired to the car via Bluetooth, drivers can ask Siri for directions, make phone calls, send and read texts, play music, and ask questions that don’t require a web browser to open.

Detroit Electric SP:01

Source: Apple.

Apple’s move into the automotive space is just another way it’s trying to keep current iPhone users hooked on Siri. The company needs to fill in niches like the automotive market to prove to smartphone users that it’s an indispensable feature.

But Android phones are making a move into autos as well, through the use of Nuance Communications‘ voice technology. Nuance already works with over a dozen car companies to bring voice controls into cars, and some smartphone makers like ZTE are working with Nuance to bring car-ready voice integration to their devices. Nuance is currently developing a personal assistant of its own that has yet to be released, which has led to some speculation in the tech world that Apple may purchase the company to eliminate further competition.

With Apple opening up 12 new spots for Siri developers, it may be a sign that Apple recognizes the personal assistant competition is heating up. Given that iOS 7 is likely to launch this summer, it may be the right time for Apple to bring …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Why This Is a Crucial Time for Investors

By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

For anyone who believes that CEO pay has careened far out of control, say-on-pay votes are more important now than ever. This is particularly because so far, it looks like 2012 didn’t put the brakes on pay levels.

USA Today has issued preliminary findings that CEO pay increased 8% in 2012, to a median $9.7 million. These figures were culled from 145 S&P 500 companies that have already filed their 2012 CEO compensation data in their proxy statements.

Obviously this increase outstrips inflation and belies the economic weakness faced by many American workers (and those out of work). As usual, chief executives tend to make out a lot better financially than the rest of the economy — and society.

It’s still early in proxy season, but several companies have already suffered say-on-pay defeats from shareholders. It’s time for the rest of us to consider whether CEOs at the companies we own deserve a smackdown on their compensation packages.

First rumblings of dissatisfaction
By mining through filings and current events, one might identify logical reasons why some companies’ shareholders have already made their dissatisfaction clear through their proxy votes.

The most withering failure so far has gone to truck maker Navistar . A scant 17.8% of its shareholders voted in favor of the company’s CEO compensation policies. Perhaps that’s because former CEO Daniel Ustian left the helm last August with $8 million in severance and pension benefits valued at about $17 million.

Digital Generation , which manages and distributes electronic ads, received only 38.7% approval of its CEO compensation policies. Director David Kantor also fared badly in the voting, with 8.6 million votes in favor of his election, and a whopping 7.5 million votes withheld. (Given the lack of an “against” option, withheld votes serve the same purpose.)

The company’s been floundering, its stock price has fallen, and it recently announced a quarterly loss and failure to find a buyer. However, on Jan. 1, 2012, CEO Scott Ginsburg left the position, passing it on to Neil Nguyen. Both made out pretty well in 2012. As executive chairman, Ginsburg received a base salary of $629,000 with total pay valued at $9 million, and Nguyen’s base salary was set at $592,000, with total pay valued at $8 million.

In addition, according to newly penned employment agreements disclosed in the proxy, should Ginsburg leave his job due to a change in control, he’s entitled to a severance package valued at nearly $8 million. Nguyen’s entitled to a package valued at about $6 million for the same situation.

Only 41.2% of shareholder votes were cast in favor of Nuance CommunicationsCEO compensation policies. Although fiscal 2012 was a good year in terms of profit growth, the company’s shares have taken a beating in the last month or so on slashed guidance. Meanwhile, it bears mentioning that the company didn’t turn an annual profit from 2003 until the fiscal year ended September 2011.

The shareholder wake-up call has already occurred …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Will Nuance Benefit From an Icahn Stake?

By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Shares of voice recognition specialist Nuance Communications are having a good day, with shares gaining upwards of 9% on news that activist investor Carl Icahn has taken a stake in the company. The famed investor disclosed a 9.3% passive stake in Nuance, an indication that he believes shares are currently undervalued.

There are numerous possibilities on how Icahn could seek to restructure Nuance. Some analysts believe that Icahn could push for Nuance to strengthen its balance sheet, since it currently carries a large amount of debt due to its acquisitive nature. At the end of 2012, Nuance was sitting on more than $2.3 billion in long-term debt.

Since Nuance has so many businesses, it’s also conceivable that Icahn would be looking to divest some of the less important segments in order to focus on its core licensing businesses in health care, mobile, and enterprise. For example, the imaging sector was just 12% of sales last quarter, and could potentially be divested.

Nuance got crushed two months ago when it reported earnings and issued soft guidance for the full year. That sell-off brought shares to 52-week lows and was likely overdone. CEO Paul Ricci cited macro headwinds in Europe as contributing factors to the conservative outlook.

Meanwhile, Nuance’s valuation has always been a tricky topic, since its intangible amortization and other acquisition related costs put a drag on reported earnings and made its trading multiples appear inflated.

The fact that Icahn is buying in may give investors more confidence that Nuance isn’t overvalued at 39 times earnings.

Ricci is a notorious hardball, as is Icahn. I’d gladly pay a cover charge just to watch those two duke it out in a boardroom. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Ricci acted quickly to institute some anti-Icahn measures like a poison pill, a move other companies have made in the past to fend off Icahn’s unsolicited advances.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Icahn Unveils 9.3% Stake In Nuance, Voice-Recognition Firm Reportedly Behind Apple's Siri

By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff

Hyundai Emblem

Carl Icahn just won’t sit tight.  In a filing released after market hours on Monday, the billionaire investor revealed a 9.3% passive stake in Nuance Communications, a voice-recognition company reportedly behind Apple’s Siri.  Shares in the company surged in after-hours trading. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Nuance Launches Voice Ads

By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Voice recognition specialist Nuance Communications has unveiled a new mobile advertising platform called Voice Ads that aims to transform traditional mobile advertising and create engaging conversations between consumers and advertisers by facilitating a two-way line of communication.

Says Nuance in today’s press release: “Voice Ads are simply easy and fun for consumers to use. An ad appears and prompts the consumer to participate by speaking to it. From there, the conversation drives the experience, which is tailored to meet both the needs of the brand and the consumer.”

Nuance will utilize location and voice input to offer a scalable advertising solution, where consumers can speak to ads. The company cites data from eMarketer, which estimates that mobile ad spending will grow to $37 billion by 2016. Nuance is hoping to leverage the growing popularity of mobile personal assistants, including its own and those that are powered by its voice recognition engine.

The company has partnered with numerous mobile advertising companies to expand the reach of Voice Ads.

link

The article Nuance Launches Voice Ads originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Nuance Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of Nuance Communications. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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<p style="clear: both;padding: 8px 0 0 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

How Siri Could Kill Apple

By Greg Satell, Contributor

When Apple launched the iPhone 4S in the fall of 2011, it shattered sales records, selling over 4 million units in the first three days. A big part of that success was Siri, the revolutionary new interface which responds to voice commands. It appeared that Steve Jobs had done it again. (This time, from beyond the grave no less!).  Back in the ‘80’s, he had transformed personal computing by introducing the public to the graphical user interface (first developed at Xerox PARC).  Then came first iPhone with its multi-touch interface, revolutionary for its time (but developed by FingerWorks, acquired by Apple in 2005). Now, Apple appeared to be taking it to the next level, with an interface that didn’t require hands at all.  Once again Siri was not only a technological triumph, but a smart business move.  Rather than spend years lavishing billions of dollars on an R&D program, Apple picked up Siri for a reported $200 million.  Even better, the initial research was financed by DARPA.  (Thanks Uncle Sam!) Alas, things were not what they seemed.  In fact, Siri could signal the beginning of the end for Apple. First, the obvious.  When you ask Siri for something, it inevitably sends you to Google.  So while Apple impresses consumers, their arch-rival at Mountain View profits.  Apple has since launched their own maps (not very effectively, I might add), but their only other option for basic search is Microsoft, which wouldn’t be much of an improvement in terms of competitive concerns. Second, even Siri itself is not truly an Apple product.  Much of the critical technology is provided by Nuance Communications, a leader in speech recognition.  So it’s hard to see how Siri gives Apple any competitive advantage at all. Probably most importantly, with Apple’s paltry R&D budget, it is unlikely that they will be able to compete beyond interfaces and devices (and with the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy 4S, even their position there seems to be eroding).  As I wrote in an earlier post for Forbes, a variety of companies, ranging from Facebook to IBM are investing heavily in systems that combine natural language with Big Data. Apple, for its part, doesn’t seem to have any significant artificial intelligence platform beyond the Siri interface and no big data effort to speak of.  If they did, we would know about it.  Despite Apple’s well deserved reputation for secrecy, even they wouldn’t be able to hide hiring the top notch talent that they would need to build a strong artificial intelligence platform.  There’s just not that much of it around. So it appears that Apple is at a crossroads.  They have plenty of cash and leadership positions in both smartphones and tablets, two high growth categories that are far from saturation.  Moreover, their notebook and iPod businesses continue to be wildly profitable.  However, it’s tough to see how Apple will compete 3-5 years from now when Big Data and artificial intelligence become an important part of the consumer experience. As I’ve pointed out before, it’s not …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Why Nuance Is Poised to Bounce Back

By Brian D. Pacampara, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool’s free investing community, speech-software specialist Nuance Communications has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Nuance and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Nuance facts

 

 

Headquarters (founded)

Burlington, Mass. (1992)

Market Cap

$6.3 billion

Industry

Application software

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$6.3 billion

Management

Chairman/CEO Paul Ricci

CFO Thomas Beaudoin

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

2.7%

Cash/Debt

$961.1 million/$2.3 billion

Competitors

IBM

MedQuist Holdings

Microsoft

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 96% of the 6,002 members who have rated Nuance believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last month, one of those Fools, NoOracleHere, tapped Nuance as a particularly sound turnaround opportunity:

The recent haircut makes this call easier. In the near future, computing is going [mobile]. But the weakness of [mobile] is the weakness in the keyboard/mouse solution. Touch screens go only so far, but what better method than to just talk to our devices? This is accentuated by trends in the on-line interactive area where natural language recognition is becoming more important. Further development in the image processing area is being driven by robotics, where scene evaluation is in its infancy. [Nuance] has a lot of work ahead.

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Brian D. Pacampara”, contentId: “cms.26291”, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Is Nuance Communications the Ultimate Contrarian Buy?

By Steve Heller, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

After hitting fresh 52-week lows, Nuance Communications investors can’t seem to catch a break. In this video, Motley Fool contributor Steve Heller goes through the earnings miss, what risk factors the company faces, and the ever-important question: Will he sell his shares anytime soon?

Speech recognition is yet another nascent technology set to explode with the rise of tablets and smartphones, and no company is better poised to benefit from this coming boom than Nuance Communications. However, this growth story doesn’t come without risks, too. The Motley Fool recently published a premium research report to break down what investors interested in Nuance absolutely have to understand before investing, so click here now to grab your copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Beyond Voice Recognition: It's The Age Of Intelligent Systems

By Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff Guest post written by Vlad Sejnoha Vlad Sejnoha is chief technology officer for Nuance Communications. Vlad Sejnoha For many people, 2012 was the year when it became “normal” to use your voice to control your phone, car, computer and even your TV. This happened thanks to some remarkable advances in the field of […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest