| From: Jorgen Jensen | 12/4/2013 5:59:10 PM | | | | | | Dec 4 2013,
Activist investor Carl C. Icahn on Wednesday disclosed that he increased his stake in Nuance Communications Inc. ( NUAN ) by 6.5 million shares.
Mr. Icahn now owns a total of 58.9 million shares in the company, or a stake of nearly 19%, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He owned 52.4 million shares in the company as of Sept. 30, according to a filing last month.
Mr. Icahn has been steadily adding to his stake in the company since disclosing a 9.3% stake in April. Nuance in October named two representatives of Icahn Enterprises L.P. ( IEP ) to the company's board.
Nuance, which makes software that converts speech into text, is known best for its Dragon line of dictation products. Costs, tied in part to acquisitions, have weighed on the company's bottom line in recent quarters, masking top-line growth.
Shares of Nuance were up 13 cents at $14.28 after hours. Through the close, the stock is down 38% so far this year. |
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| To: JakeStraw who wrote (769) | 12/10/2013 5:48:59 PM | | From: deeno | | | | | ICAHN picks up another $20mm. what is he THINKING? I cant for the life of me unload my shares, but I havent read much positive in a LONG time. The stock is reflecting that for sure. Cant imagine the plan. |
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| To: deeno who wrote (770) | 12/11/2013 5:44:20 PM | | From: Jorgen Jensen | | | | | Carl bought a lot of shares at around $18- and more on the way down. His total investment is probably over one billion, and his son is now on the Board of Directors. I will stick with him, as he has a lot more info and investment savvy than I do. |
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| To: Jorgen Jensen who wrote (771) | 12/11/2013 5:58:57 PM | | From: Sr K | | | | The threat to their voice recognition business is that Google is not using Nuance, and they are rolling out VR wider and wider. They trumpeted this in their last cc. In the Nuance Q&A a late question was about the business relationship with Google, and Paul Ricci said there's no material relationship with Google.
The growth areas are medical and other.
In the niche business of processing PDF documents and similar products, there are Apps by competitors for $3 and less, and Nuance doesn't seem to have an App for iOS or Android, regardless of price.
How are they going to compete? Siri has challengers, and if Nuance doesn't have the 100+ languages Google has or will soon have (they were in the high 70s in October), Google will take that market, or Apple will, just like Google is dominant in maps. |
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| To: Sr K who wrote (772) | 12/11/2013 7:47:02 PM | | From: Jorgen Jensen | | | | | Excellent points Sr K. I was actually thinking of getting out of Nuance earlier this year, but when Carl started buying, I decided to stay. Hoping for a buyout one of these days in the mid twenties. Been in love with Nuance for more years than I care to remember. |
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| To: Jorgen Jensen who wrote (773) | 12/12/2013 10:53:10 AM | | From: deeno | | | | | similar postion. definitely lost faith, but Icahns stake must have some purpose. I'm willing to stick it out to find out, but maybe his son just needed a job. |
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| From: Savant | 12/16/2013 9:54:09 PM | | | | | | | Jetstar Selects Nuance's Nina Web for "Ask Jess" Virtual Assistant | Airline Travelers Chat with Jess to Ease Online Queries, Get the Right Information; New Virtual Assistant Draws on Nuance's Powerful Natural Language Understanding, Conversational Capabilities
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--December 16, 2013--
Nuance Communications, (NASDAQ:NUAN) today announced that Jetstar has launched a new virtual assistant called "Ask Jess" which is based on Nuance Nina Web, an intelligent virtual assistant that delivers a human-like, conversational customer service experience. Customers simply type to Jess, and Jess provides the answers. Jetstar is the first airline to deploy Nuance Nina Web virtual assistant for customer service.
The new Ask Jess virtual assistant draws on Nuance Nina, an intelligent virtual assistant that leverages innovative natural language understanding technology and delivers a conversational interface to web visitors which simulates human conversation. Nuance's Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology allows applications like Ask Jess to understand a customer's intent through an interactive, text-based chat experience. By understanding what customers want, Ask Jess makes getting information on booking, baggage and seating easier than navigating pages on a Web site. Jetstar's Ask Jess virtual assistant is also fully integrated with the company's existing live chat service, delivering a seamless handover to human support when required.
As recent surveys have shown, while many Web sites offer self-help tools to enable consumers to resolve their issues online, more than 58% of people are unable to do so. Nearly 50% of consumers ultimately give up and contact a live agent for assistance after spending ten to more than 30 minutes unsuccessfully trying to find answers to a query. And the vast majority of consumers (71%) would prefer a virtual assistant as part of the Web self-service experience to provide a more efficient, and human-like, interaction.
"It's clear that consumers want greater levels of service on the Web," said Ian Watson, Head of Customer Care, Jetstar. "Our aim with Ask Jess was to deliver a truly innovative experience with a virtual assistant -- to not only provide information more quickly, but to provide the right information, based on an understanding of what the consumer needs. Jess has already been quite busy handling requests that would have otherwise gone straight to our contact center, and she's doing great work. In fact, in just her first 5 days on the job, she has successfully answered over 77% of all requests."
Nuance delivers key innovations in the area of online customer engagement, leveraging Nuance's natural language understanding (NLU) to provide human-like virtual assistant interactions through its Nina platform. Nuance's Nina Web is an intelligent virtual assistant that delivers personalized, effortless online customer service, ensuring a compelling customer experience while reducing a company's agent-led interactions by more than 40%. Using a human-like text-based conversational interface, Nina Web responds quickly, consistently, and accurately to customer requests -- 24/7 -- interactively guiding them to a successful resolution, at a fraction of the cost of traditional channels. Beyond support, Nina Web has proven value in e-commerce where it has shown to increase the value of Web orders by 25% and increase conversion rates by 7%. Large organizations around the world such as Gamefly, Kaspersky, Michelin, Nespresso and Windstream rely on Nina Web to deliver engaging, efficient Web self-service interactions and reinvent their customer experience.
"Jetstar's deployment of Nina Web is a perfect example of how our deep expertise in NLU and conversational technology can create a truly engaging Web experience that consumers prefer over a static Web page," said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Division, Nuance. "We've seen time and again that delivering this type of virtual assistant experience -- across all channels, in fact -- to support customer self-service boosts customer engagement and loyalty and is a real differentiator for enterprises in today's competitive environment in terms of retaining existing customers and acquiring new customer as well."
Ask Jess is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to customers on the Australian version of Jetstar.com. The service will be rolled out in New Zealand, Singapore and all other English versions of the site early next year. Japanese and simplified Chinese versions of the service are also planned.
More information regarding Jetstar's deployment of Nina Web in their Ask Jess virtual assistant, as well as a recent survey on Web self-service and related infographic can be found on Nuance's Customer Experts blog here.
About Nuance Communications, Inc
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Trademark reference: Nuance, and the Nuance logo are trademarks, registered trademarks or brands of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and other countries. All other companies or product names are the property of the respective owners.
CONTACT: Global Results PR for Nuance
Lora Friedrichsen, 949-929-7234
lfriedrichsen@globalresultspr.com
or
Nuance Communications
Erica Hill, 781-888-5518
erica.hill@nuance.com |
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