Microsoft stated Monday it could purchase Nuance Communications, a supplier of synthetic intelligence and speech recognition software program, for about $ 16 billion, whereas pushing to broaden its well being expertise companies.

In buying Nuance, whose merchandise embody Dragon medical transcription software program, Microsoft hopes to assist its choices for the quickly rising area of medical computing. The 2 corporations are already collaborating on methods to automate the method of transcribing medical doctors ’conversations with sufferers and integrating this info into sufferers’ medical data.

Nuance can also be recognized for offering voice recognition software program behind Siri, Apple’s digital assistant. Lately, nonetheless, it has targeted on the creation and sale of software program targeted on the medical area.

Beneath the phrases of the settlement introduced Monday, Microsoft can pay $ 56 per share in money, up greater than 23 % from the closing worth of Nuance on Friday. Together with the assumed debt, the transaction values ​​Nuance at about $ 19.7 billion.

The deal is Microsoft’s largest takeover since its 2015 acquisition of LinkedIn for $ 26.2 billion.

“Nuance supplies the AI ​​layer on the healthcare supply level and is a pioneer in real-world software of enterprise AI,” stated Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s government director, in an announcement.