Nuance Purchases Tegic's T9

[Barry]

Nuance is purchasing the developer of the T9 predictive text input software for mobile phones from current owner AOL. Tegic's T9 interface has simplified text messaging. Rather than press 9-9-6-6-6-8-8 to spell the word "you," T9 users can type 9-6-8 and let the software predict which word they are trying to spell. T9 software has been embedded in 2.5 billion phones, according to Nuance -- although many of those may now be in landfill.

Nuance plans to integrate Tegic's software with its Nuance Voice Control software, obtained through the acquisition of MobileVoiceControl in January. The voice control interface is intended to simplify text input and menu navigation, and is available for smartphones running operating systems from Microsoft, Palm, and Research In Motion.

Nuance will pay around $265 million in cash and expects the deal to close by the end of September, subject to regulatory approval.

_________________
Start Posting for Cool Prizes!