Microsoft acquires Nuance
Deal Financials
- Transaction Value: $19.7B
- Enterprise Value / Revenue: 13.3x
- Enterprise Value/EBITDA: 71.4x
Transaction Overview
- On April 12, 2021, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Nuance Communication, a speech-to-text recognition software provider which uses artificial intelligence.
- Through this acquisition Microsoft can enhance its industry-focused cloud strategy, adding new AI capabilities across healthcare and other industries.
TBP’s analysis on Conversational AI in Healthcare
- The COVID-19 pandemic is driving the need for Conversational AI in the healthcare industry.
- Based on the 2020 CDC report regarding trends in the use of telehealth, the demand for frictionless patient experience in telehealth increased by 154%. With better customer/patient services at the forefront, tools that are powered by AI and NLP are in high demand.
- To better serve patients, leading companies started to provide various AI-based customer engagement solutions to enhance a smoother patient experience.
- AI is used to overcome challenges like patient engagement and information retrieval, doctor appointments, and follow-ups to streamline the overall patient experience during their healthcare visits.
TBP’s summary on transactions in Conversational AI in Q1 2021
- In Feb 2021, Twilio acquired Value First Digital Media, an AI-powered communication platform provider which helps businesses seamlessly engage with their customer.
- In Jan 2021, Visiqua acquired ROIVerify, a company providing conversational AI solutions to increase customer engagements and drive more sales for businesses.
- In Jan 2021, Genesis research acquired EvidScience, a leading AI technology platform in the life science and healthcare industry. With this acquisition, Genesis Research will have a unique combination of AI + Human Intelligence to extract insights at greater speed with better quality.
- Various early-stage investment companies have shown active interest in this space. In Jan 2021, Five Elms Capital invested in PlayVox, a company providing AI-powered quality assurance software helping call center agents in delivering a better customer experience.
- In Jan 2021, Stout Street Capital invested in Botco.ai, an AI-powered conversational marketing platform that enables meaningful and intelligent conversations between businesses and their customers.
TBP’s co-investments in the AI space
- TBP was part of a group of seed-stage co-investors in Observe.ai, which develops AI-powered software for customer interaction analysis and streamlining quality assurance workflows.
- TBP also participated in the seed round of Quark.ai, a next-generation Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology platform that automates technically complex customer support tickets.
M&A Transactions in Conversational AI
Investment Activity in Conversational AI
About True Blue Partners
True Blue Partners is a boutique M&A advisory firm that serves lower mid-market enterprise software, service and solutions companies. It brings the rigorous strategic and financial perspective of bulge bracket firms with a company building approach and a steadfast partnership that only an independent boutique firm can deliver. For more information please visit www.truebluepartners.com or email us at info@truebluepartners.com.
True Blue Partners is a boutique M&A advisory firm that serves lower mid-market enterprise software, service and solutions companies. It brings the rigorous strategic and financial perspective of bulge bracket firms with a company building approach and a steadfast partnership that only an independent boutique firm can deliver. For more information please visit www.truebluepartners.com or email us at info@truebluepartners.com.
