Icahn Boosts Stake In Nuance Communications To Nearly 19%

(RTTNews) - Billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn has increased his stake in speech-recognition software maker Nuance Communications Inc. (NUAN) to nearly 19 percent from his previous stake of 16.90 percent.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn disclosed that he now owns a total of 58.93 million shares in Nuance, compared to his ownership of a total of 52.44 million shares that he disclosed in late August.

Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance had on August 20 adopted a 'poison pill' in the form of a shareholder rights plan. The poison pill was put in place after Icahn boosted his beneficial ownership in Nuance to 16.03 percent earlier in August.

Icahn has been steadily acquiring shares in Nuance since he first revealed a 9.27 percent stake in the company in April.

Icahn is known to amass stakes in companies that he sees as undervalued and poorly managed, in order to push for management changes and seats on the company's board of directors for himself and his nominees. Nuance said in October that it appointed Icahn's son Brett Icahn and Icahn's investment partner David Schechter to its board of directors, with immediate effect.

If Icahn is successful is gaining control of Nuance, he could force the company to divest a part of itself or even the entire company, with possible suitors being Apple, Inc. (AAPL), Google, Inc. (GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). Meanwhile, Apple could be the most benefited by a deal as it already uses Nuance's speech recognition technology in iPhones as part of its Siri voice recognition app.

NUAN closed Wednesday's trading at $14.15, up $0.64 or 4.74 percent on a volume of 14.85 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $0.29 or 2.05 percent to $14.44.