It's not a terribly exciting day today in terms of the market averages, but there are some stocks doing well. Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) is one of them.
Nuance, which provides technologies for speech recognition and solutions for document needs, is up 5% on better-than-average volume as I write this. The catalyst? It appears to be a deal -- what else is new? Nuance is definitely an asset collector, and its business model is based, in part, on leveraging its various acquisitions to drive long-term shareholder value. It needs to do this as effectively as possible to compete with big guns such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and IBM (NYSE: IBM). That can be risky, but so far, the stock has done well for me -- I've owned this for a while, and my cost basis is somewhere around $9 per share. Lately, though, I've been thinking of selling, as the stock still has yet to break through its 52-week high of $22.55 (shares are currently trading around $18.60) -- I thought that event would have happened a while ago, but I was wrong.
The acquisition announced today was for eScription, a business involved in transcription services for the medical industry. Sounds good to me -- anything to do with helping health care become more efficient should be valuable over time. The price tag was pegged at $400 million. I'll be watching the price action on Nuance -- hopefully it'll make a fresh run toward that 52-week high soon.
Disclosure: I own shares in Nuance Communications; positions can change at any time.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-08-2008 @ 5:09PM
MIDDLEVILLAGE said...
I'VE BEEN IN AND OUT OF NUAN FOR YEARS NOW....SINCE IT WAS SSFT. I'VE FOLLOWED IT CLOSELY AND MADE MONEY ON UPS AND DOWNS.
I ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY WOULD DO WELL AND NOW I AM SURE OF IT. YES, THEY ARE BUYING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT THAT HELPS THEIR TECHNOLOGY. WORSE CASE, I GUESS, IS THAT MICROSOFT OR EVEN GOOGLE COULD BUY THEM AT A PREMIUM. I'LL CONTINUE TO HOLD IN MY IRA. I DO THINK THEIR TECH CAN GREATLY HELP OUR AILING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM'S ROCKETING COSTS.