Microsoft announced that it will acquire Nuance for $19.7 billion. The announcment followed reports on Sunday of the imminent deal.

Nuance is a cloud and AI software provider with substantial focus on healthcare. The acquisition fits with Microsoft's efforts to acquire industry specific cloud offerings, in this case grouped around Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. Nuance provides SaaS offerings built on Azure such as Dragon Medical One, Drago Ambient eXperience and PowerScribe One for radiology, in use with 55 percent of physicians in the US.

The acquisition is intended to broaden Microsoft's total addressable market in healthcare to $500 billion. Beyond healthcare, Nuance offers Interactive Voice Response, virtual assistants, and biometric options.

As part of the deal, Mark Benjamin will remain CEO of Nuance, reporting to Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud & AI at Microsoft. 

Benjamin stated: 

Over the past three years, Nuance has streamlined its portfolio to focus on the healthcare and enterprise AI segments, where there has been accelerated demand for advanced conversational AI and ambient solutions. To seize this opportunity, we need the right platform to bring focus and global scale to our customers and partners to enable more personal, affordable and effective connections to people and care. The path forward is clearly with Microsoft —  who brings intelligent cloud-based services at scale and who shares our passion for the ways technology can make a difference. At the same time, this combination offers a critical opportunity to deliver meaningful and certain value to our shareholders who have driven and supported us on this journey.

Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft stated: 

Nuance provides the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery and is a pioneer in the real-world application of enterprise AI. AI is technology's most important priority, and healthcare is its most urgent application. Together, with our partner ecosystem, we will put advanced AI solutions into the hands of professionals everywhere to drive better decision-making and create more meaningful connections, as we accelerate growth of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and Nuance.