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- Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) planned acquisition of Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) is being formally investigated by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority to determine whether it will hamper competition in the U.K.
- "The deadline for the CMA to announce its decision whether to refer the Merger for a Phase 2 investigation is therefore 9 March 2022," the CMA wrote in its notice on Wednesday.
- The CMA first said last month that it was looking into the purchase because of concerns that it could result in a "substantial lessening of competition" in the U.K. market. It invited comments on the transaction until January 10, 2022.
- Microsoft (MSFT) shares are up nearly 0.5% in pre-market trading to $316.49, while Nuance (NUAN) edged higher.
- Nuance, which helped build Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Siri virtual assistant, will allow the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant to expand into cloud services for healthcare. The Nuance (NUAN) deal would be Microsoft's (MSFT) second largest, following its $26.2 billion deal for LinkedIn.
- A few days later, Microsoft (MSFT) was granted approval by the European Commission for its $16 billion acquisition of speech recognition and artificial intelligence software company Nuance Communications (NUAN).
- In June, Microsoft (MSFT) received U.S. antitrust approval for its planned purchase of Nuance Communications (NUAN).
- Investment firm Jefferies recently predicted that Microsoft (MSFT) would hit $400 per share in 2022.