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Microsoft's $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance gets EU approval

Microsoft's purchase of Nuance Communications cleared its last regulatory hurdle on Tuesday.

Microsoft

Microsoft is acquiring Nuance Communications for $16 billion

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft's acquisition of Nuance Communications was approved by the European Commission on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The $19.7 billion acquisition will be one of the largest ever for Microsoft, eclipsed only by its $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn.

The acquisition, which was announced in April, had already been approved in the U.S. and Australia, according to Reuters. Nuance provides AI-based communications services for health care providers, which sit on Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft's move is part of the company's strategy to expand in the health care space. Longtime rival Oracle is looking at similar territory, agreeing to a $28 billion deal for health care records provider Cerner just this week.

Aisha Counts

Aisha Counts (@aishacounts) is a reporter at Protocol covering enterprise software. Formerly, she was a management consultant for EY. She's based in Los Angeles and can be reached at acounts@protocol.com.

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