UK - Goldman Sachs et al. sell SpinVox to Nuance

The consideration includes $66m in cash and approximately 2.3m shares of Nuance common stock.

London-based SpinVox works with mobile operators, cable companies and application developers to deliver network and enterprise voice-to-text solutions. Customers include Alltel, Bell, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Vodacom, Vodafone, Skype and others.

In 2008, GLG, Blue Mountain and Toscafund invested $100m alongside Goldman Sachs in SpinVox in a third round of funding for the company. In August last year, existing investors provided £15m of emergency funding for the business. At the time, SpinVox's CEO Christina Domecq was cited as saying that company finances were pressured by the downturn in the markets as well as by the demand of strong growth following recent client wins in Latin America. There were also rumours circulating that the business was having to pay its staff with shares instead of salaries. On top of this, SpinVox was involved in a legal dispute with its vendors and was forced to counter claims that its voicemail transcription service is being carried out by humans. SpinVox had reportedly admitted that the company only uses humans if the automated translation machine "needs help". The company has raised approximately $200m in venture capital funding since 2003.

The acquisition is expected to accelerate the growth of Nuance's voice-to-text business.

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