A government watchdog has launched an investigation of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Nuance Communications, regulators revealed recently.
The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority issued notice of the inquiry Wednesday and said it plans to reach a decision by March 9. It comes after the European Commission granted its own antitrust approval in December. Government officials determined at the time that the deal would not significantly reduce competition in the markets for physician transcription, cloud storage, enterprise communication, customer relationship management, and productivity software.
CMA’s process will similarly explore whether combining Nuance and Microsoft could result in a “substantial lessening of competition” in the U.K.
Microsoft first announced plans to buy Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance in April, hoping to broaden its reach in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Nuance’s technology is currently used by 55% of all physicians in the country, 75% of radiologists, and 77% of all U.S. hospitals. Acquiring the company will double Microsoft’s total addressable market in the healthcare provider space, climbing to nearly $500 billion, officials said at the time.
U.S. antitrust regulators already granted their own approval in June. Last month, a Nuance official said they’re on track to finalize the deal in early 2022. This would mark the second largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history behind only its $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.