Is Carl Icahn finally having his way with Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN), the company that is said to be the brain behind Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Siri voice recognition system?
After appointing son to board, Icahn is optimistic
Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is up significantly today amid brisk volume on takeover talk. ValueWalk reported when Icahn upped his stake from 9 percent to 16 percent in August of 2013 and Tabinda Hussain wondered out loud if Icahn was planning a coup. Then in December 2013 ValueWalk reported Icahn upped his stake, adding 50,000 shares and buying on a relative drawdown at $14.2 per share. The December purchase followed Icahn gaining two board seats in October, one of the seats when to Icahn’s son Brett.
At the time of the younger Icahn’s appointment, Carl tweeted “I’m optimistic their impact at NUAN will be similar to The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAIN), where stock went from $20.20 to $79.56 over the 3 years they sat on the board.” The stock began to dive near the start of October, hit a low near Icahn’s December entry price at $14.2 per share, then bounced, currently trading at $15.72.
Nuance stock moves higher with noted options action
Today’s move higher in Nuance stock was noted on volume in not only the stock, but also the call options, which are often an indicator of insider or hedge fund interest in a firm. With the December increase in stock, Icahn had upped his stake in Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) at 18.72 percent. Icahn had signed a “standstill agreement” at that time that limited his acquisition to no more than 20 percent.
In December the software company had reported disappointing earnings. Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN)’s earnings per share slipped 41% year over year, while revenue disappointed at $472.2 million as against the Wall Street estimate of $489.56 million during a period of time when Sales were down 4% on the year.
The Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) investment comes as Icahn also has exposure to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Computer, where he has been advocating a share buyback that would likely boost the stock price, as previously reported.
Speech recognition software company
In October Nuance announced that its FreeSpeech voice biometrics technology was used by Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS) (LON:BARC) Wealth & Investment Management division in its call center. The technology authenticates users while attempting to engage in natural conversation.
In December Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) announced that its voice recognition platform supported the Mandarin Chinese language. The software also works on various mobile platforms, such as Android platform, allowing drivers to speak to make calls, find, play and change music with their voice, as well as obtain directions and have the latest news articles read aloud to the driver.
