Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#271

Post by marcosdumay » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

1123581321 wrote: post #155

mikro2nd wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago, deep in the fine-print of the Skype ToU, was buried a clause in which anything you discussed via Skype granted to MS a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, etc. license to anything mentioned. Is that still there? (Haven't used Skype in many a long year, myself.) I always wondered why that clause didn't render Skype unusable for any business or prospective business conversation.

No, that is standard language that gives a website the right to store and display content you post to it (e.g., to show your avatar on a profile page or show forum posts or chats.) Many websites use it; see this search for examples: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22any%20time%20you%20... This is the text from Skype’s terms: “Notwithstanding any rights or obligations governed by the Additional Terms (as define…

So, those are both necessary terms due to the US asinine idea that copying data within a system is covered by copyrights, and general enough terms that allow MS to do anything they want with any content you send through Skype.

I don't see how the GP is incorrect. But I also don't see how MS could improve anything here.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#272

Post by globular-toast » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

Scharkenberg wrote: post #264

globular-toast wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any specifics to back up that feeling?

Free private repos? Dark themes? The ability to use your Github account to log into other Microsoft places?

Why are you asking me?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#273

Post by tambourine_man » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

perardi wrote: post #268

bombcar wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acquiring is a simple way to show the Board/Shareholders that you're "doing something" - but I suspect it's rarely very successful in the long run. Unless you acquire a business that ACTUALLY provides some synergies you're just on the path of transitioning from a successful company to a poor imitation of Berkshire Hathaway. It does have the advantage that you can "spin off" your acquisitions once they fail to do anyt…

Apple has had some decent ones. P.A. Semi, notably. And for $278 million dollars, the ROI on that was ludicrous. But overall, yes. I can think of so many large-scale acquisitions that didn't go so swimmingly. - AOL/Time-Warner - Ford/its stable of luxury brands like Jaguar and Land Rover - Compaq/HP - Daimler/Chrysler It seems like these “big” mergers tend to now show the synergies people promise. Maybe it’s just too…

>Apple has had some decent ones. P.A. Semi, notably

And, let's not forget, NeXT.

Probably one of the best U$400 something million ever spent.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#274

Post by 1123581321 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:47 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #271

1123581321 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that is standard language that gives a website the right to store and display content you post to it (e.g., to show your avatar on a profile page or show forum posts or chats.) Many websites use it; see this search for examples: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22any%20time%20you%20... This is the text from Skype’s terms: “Notwithstanding any rights or obligations governed by the Additional Terms (as define…

So, those are both necessary terms due to the US asinine idea that copying data within a system is covered by copyrights, and general enough terms that allow MS to do anything they want with any content you send through Skype. I don't see how the GP is incorrect. But I also don't see how MS could improve anything here.

I'm sure Microsoft could survive a court challenge. That is not the same as saying getting agreement on this has no value to them.

The user was incorrect because they said, "anything you discussed via Skype granted to MS a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, etc. license to anything mentioned" in the context of their parent comment that said, "now they will be able to listen what you talk about. Where is this going?" These terms have nothing to do with listening to your conversations and they don't grant any rights to them.

That's not to say Microsoft won't ask for such licensing in the future.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#275

Post by nickfromseattle » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

tootie wrote: post #66

16bytes wrote: post #63

For those confused, this acquisition is due in large part by Nuance's dominance in healthcare related products. From Nuance's last earnings release[1]: “We are very pleased with the strong start to the fiscal year, as we delivered revenue and EPS above our guidance range expectations,” said Mark Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer at Nuance. “We continued to advance our strategic initiatives, accelerating our cloud tra…

I'm pretty sure Nuance also does the Comcast Xfinity voice remotes. They are actually really well done. And it's a humongous customer to have your claws in.

Microsoft already has relationships with Comcast [0] and nearly every major telecommunication around the world.

[0] https://cloudsolutions.comcast.com/apps/64168/office-365#!ov...

And 100% agreed, the voice is great on the Xfinity remote. Was very impressed.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#276

Post by twobitshifter » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

BoorishBears wrote: post #232

schmuelio wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't remember how android handles screen rotations so I went and checked, I looked on both my phone and my tablet on a plethora of apps: - YouTube - GMail - FireFox - Plex - RIF (Reddit app) - Material (HackerNews app) - Main home screen - Sudoku game All of them animated screen rotation just fine, with no blank screen or glitching. Just a smooth animation of the app screen rotating from portrait to landscape (an…

You realize I work on Android devices all day long right? I have 5 of them sitting in this room! You might not notice, but I assure you, they clear the screen then fade back in. The exceptions are apps that have to handle configuration changes anyways like games or full screen video. It's not always a janky thing, phones have gotten fast enough that the screen redraw is easily hidden behind a half rotate followed by…

With limited Android experience I can corroborate the screen rotation stupidity. The latest google wisdom is to use the Model View ViewModel pattern, which can help to work around this issue. If you are using a “view model” its a hack to largely avoid this screen rotation BS, but I don’t expect many Android apps are implemented this way. Keeping up with google is like chasing your own tail.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#277

Post by twobitshifter » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

andrew_v4 wrote: post #77

3v1n0 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, not that different from Google either.

One difference I've found between MS and Google: MS is much more annoying about everything they do. (Hear me out) I'd be surprised if there is any real difference in how either company respects your privacy (neither does). But for the most part, google seems to do its thing in the background and leave you alone. Microsoft is constantly popping things up asking you to rate this or that, flinging things you didn't ask…

Microsoft is annoying while Google is creepy. I’m annoyed by the dark pattern designs used by Microsoft, but Google will remember things that you about yourself that you didn’t at moments when you didn’t ask for help. It’s creepy because you’d rather not know that a company has that amount of data on your life.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#278

Post by fakedang » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #252

fakedang wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He makes a lot of valid points about the unsustainability of the European system, but yeah couldn't help a chuckle at that line.

The "valid points" about how socialism will surely drive all of Europe bankrupt within the next decade have been repeated for the last seventy years. I'm sure they're right this time, though.

Of course, the European model is extremely sustainable if you can ignore the not insignificant amount of cost cutting and lack of coverage of certain drugs for orphan diseases. You can literally just talk to any doctor or nurse in the NHS system and ask them about how quality of care has declined over the past decade, while their professionals' workload has only increased unsustainably. And we're talking about one of the best run healthcare systems in Europe here.

It's of course nothing like the American system which is a bastardization of Healthcare, but it's no utopia either. Costs of delivering healthcare have increased in Europe mostly due to wasteful spending.

I don't know if you bothered to read his points after the first line, but he clearly outlined the Asian model of healthcare, and clearly criticizes the American model.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#279

Post by Zigurd » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 6:05 PM UTC

I am surprised at the amount of mention Dragon is getting here. It has been a long, and at times tragic road. I worked at a company that used Dragon's technology in a voice control product for the original Macintosh. Mostly, I worked on a Windows version for a multimedia architecture Intel was developing, which entailed the acquisition of Spectron for a DSP OS.

I got to meet a lot of the people involved at other companies in the project, including the Jim and Janet Baker, who founded Dragon, and many people at Intel up to and including Andy Grove. It was remarkable that he took interest in what was a relatively small project that was also distant from Intel's core products. I also met Jo Lernout, the L in L&H, which played a role in subsequent tragic events for the Bakers.

All those people, and most of the technologies from those days, are gone now. Dragon ended up a part of Nuance, which itself had been called ScanSoft, and, before that, was a part of Xerox that, if I recall correctly, was acquired by Xerox from Ray Kurzweil.

ScanSoft became a roll-up of a large number of speech technology companies. One of them was Nuance, and the roll-up was rebranded Nuance. Another acquisition was L&H, which had collapsed due to a financial scandal, which blew up after L&H had acquired Dragon. The Bakers got screwed and sued Goldman, who did the L&H deal. They lost.

And that is your capsule history of Nuance. Sorry to give short shrift to the acquired companies I have no firsthand knowledge of.

I believe the real story of Microsoft buying Nuance is that Nuance owns an enormous number of patents.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#280

Post by qntmfred » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 6:06 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #266

qntmfred wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nuance itself was actually spun out of an organization called SRI (note the resemblance to the name Siri)

This is incorrect. Nuance was a company that originated decades ago, SRI did build Siri, using Nuance's speech technology, but Nuance itself did not spin out of SRI.

https://www.sri.com/hoi/natural-language-speech-recognition/

> SRI spun off market leader Nuance Communications to commercialize the technology

https://hbr.org/2015/09/the-president-of-sri-ventures-on-bri...