The European Commission has approved Microsoft’s $19.7 billion bid to buy Nuance Communications. Engadget reports: The regulator said on Tuesday the proposed acquisition “would raise no competition concerns” within the European Union. In analyzing the bid, it found that “Microsoft and Nuance offer very different products.” Moreover, it believes the company will continue to face “strong” competition from other firms in the future. Before today, the US and Australia had both signed off on the purchase, but it’s not yet a done deal. On December 13th, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it would investigate the transaction. With the regulator accepting public comments until January 10th, 2022, it’s unlikely the deal will close by the end of 2021 as Microsoft had said it would when it first announced its intention to buy Nuance. In April, Microsoft agreed to acquire the speech-to-text software company, claiming the acquisition was about increasing its presence in the healthcare vertical.
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