Nuance Still Stalking Zi

After its last bid to acquire Calgary, Alberta-based Zi Corporation (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZICA]]) for $0.40 per share expired on Friday, Burlington, MA-based speech technology giant Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NUAN]]) now says Zi has until February 13 to respond to its offer. The board at Zi, which makes software for quickly typing text into mobile devices that competes with Nuance’s speech-to-text systems, has repeatedly rejected Nuance’s takeover offers, as we reported in August and November. In its Friday announcement, Nuance emphasized that its current offer represented a 25 percent premium over Zi’s closing price on August 13, prior to Nuance’s first acquisition bid—but the offer is actually below Zi’s current market price (the company was trading at around $0.41 per share this morning). After Zi rejected Nuance’s August bid, Nuance filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the Canadian firm.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/