Sam Oliver
Carl Icahn's large position in Apple may be a move to force the iPhone maker to buy Nuance Communications, the speech recognition company that drives the some of the tech behind Siri, some investors believe.
The theory was presented by the New York Post, which noted that Icahn has recently bumped up his stake in Nuance to 16.4 percent. The billionaire investor has stated that he thinks share of both Apple and Nuance are currently undervalued.
Icahn is notorious for attempting to block efforts by Dell to take the computer maker private. He has filed a number of lawsuits against the company, which he also owns a large stake in.
Some investors view Apple's reliance on Nuance's technology as a key reason to buy the company. Though it was long suspected, Nuance confirmed in May that its speech recognition helps power Apple's voice driven personal assistant software, Siri.
Nuance does not handle Siri's artificial intelligence layers, but its technology does provide the capability of Siri to interpret a user's voice. Nuance CEO Paul Ricci revealed earlier this year that his company is the "fundamental provider" of voice recognition for Apple.
Investors speculate that Apple could acquire Nuance for $7 billion — an amount that could easily be afforded by the company, which is flush with cash.
However, Icahn has given no public indication that he's interested in a potential deal between Apple and Nuance. The billionaire investor has instead pushed for Apple to buy back more shares in itself, and plans to meet with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook for dinner in September to discuss that possibility.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
47 Comments
It's not the worst idea in the world (albeit a big price tag for questionable advantage), but I wish Icahn would go and root around in someone's business. Or someone else's trash, where he belongs.
Some investors believe the earth is flat ....
Apple won't do this. It's a bad buy for Apple. The high price tag of Nuance can't be justified. Apple's licensing costs for Siri are far less than purchasing the company outright. As for Icahn, he may be able to push around the boards of smaller and weaker companies, but he won't have much clout at Apple given it's management team continues to prove its abilities at the helm.
I don't know if acquisition of Nuance would help Apple a whole lot, but given Apple's interest in speech recognition, I'd like to see them hire Janet & Jim Baker as consultants, if they haven't already. Then, if Nuance was bought, the Bakers would be perfectly situated to take it (the technology they invented) to the next level of excellence. And there would be a modicum of justice in it, too.
Read how the Bakers were swindled out of their inventions, which Apple now exploits:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/business/goldman-sachs-and-a-sale-gone-horribly-awry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
How in the world can this guy "push" Apple to do something? He is as releAFAIK, he is just a stock gambler, correct?
I do not fear this Icahn, I fear that he is just the begining. I hope they can only manipulate the stock but not the company itself.