patience_and_focus Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 7 minutes ago, dwy000 said: $21.9bn for 120,000 headsets???? That's $182,500 per headset. The hololens sells for like $3500. Microsoft must be throwing in some hammers and glue as well. As much as I like this for shareholders, it seems to me that it is a gigantic waste of taxpayers money. Unless I am missing something big and obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winjitsu Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, patience_and_focus said: As much as I like this for shareholders, it seems to me that it is a gigantic waste of taxpayers money. Unless I am missing something big and obvious. The beauty of cost + plus procurement. Wait till you see some of these Boeing and Lockheed contracts That being said, getting consumer objects to mil-spec isn't trivial or cheap, and this probably includes a maintenance contract. Edited April 1, 2021 by winjitsu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 This is not a contract to buy 120k headsets, this is a contract to develop and deliver headset hardware and software for 120k units that doesn’t exist yet on a certain timeline and with milestones. https://www.peosoldier.army.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2556870/ivas-production-contract-award/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwy000 Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 3 hours ago, Spekulatius said: This is not a contract to buy 120k headsets, this is a contract to develop and deliver headset hardware and software for 120k units that doesn’t exist yet on a certain timeline and with milestones. https://www.peosoldier.army.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2556870/ivas-production-contract-award/ Thats a valid point and development is never cheap. But Microsoft isn't exactly starting from scratch here. And at the end of it all the army will own 120,000 headsets that they paid $21.9bn for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fareastwarriors Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 Dropping some coin The price being discussed could value Nuance at about $56 a share, though the terms could still change, one of the people said. That would value the equity of Nuance, which laid the groundwork for the technology used in Apple Inc.’s Siri voice software, at about $16 billion, Microsoft in Talks to Buy AI Firm Nuance Communications https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-11/microsoft-is-said-to-be-in-talks-to-buy-nuance-communications Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Well, that was quick: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-accelerates-industry-cloud-strategy-for-healthcare-with-the-acquisition-of-nuance-301266684.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregmal Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 MSFT is counting to turn into what is basically a super high quality tech ETF. Love it, although never really a huge fan of Nuance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patience_and_focus Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 1 hour ago, Gregmal said: MSFT is counting to turn into what is basically a super high quality tech ETF. Love it, although never really a huge fan of Nuance. Why not? Can you elaborate a bit. I know very little about them at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubsfan Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 (edited) ^ Other than the Healthcare businesses that Microsoft wants - the other 2 unrelated businesses are pretty ho-hum. I think that's the problem Nuance has had in being acquired - all the unrelated businesses. Edited April 12, 2021 by cubsfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigarbutt Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 ^i can't comment on MSFT or NUAN specifically as investment targets but i'm familiar with some of their products (early adopter) and with the potential of the investment. NUAN is one of the leaders in the specialized voice recognition area. Because of the evolution towards electronic records, their dictation software has become an option. i've found that their products improve productivity but the improvement is somewhat marginal (not revolutionary) and many users, on a net basis, don't realize productivity enhancements. However, many users end up using the product and then switching costs become high (costs and time consuming). For context, see the link below. i guess the value in the deal resides in the potential that may be realized within the next 5 to 15 years as NUAN is becoming the leader in the next phase ie to have software that is user friendly and that efficiently captures, in real time, the essence of conversations (they call it the Ambient Experience). When (if) this potential is realized, there would be very high demand in the medical field and this could be horizontally extended to the legal field etc etc Why Doctors Hate Their Computers | The New Yorker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubsfan Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 ^ I think the HealthCare business of Nuance is really the gem. The NUAN voice recognition stuff is really good, but expensive. Google, Amazon & Twillio have all developed ASR technology on their own and imbedded in their solution pricing, so that's a problem for Nuance if people don't want to pay much for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregmal Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 2 hours ago, patience_and_focus said: Why not? Can you elaborate a bit. I know very little about them at this point. This was a good few years ago but NUAN was basically one of those companies that was always supposed to "turning the corner" and about to have these major breakthroughs...yet never did. There was IIRC several activists that got involved over the years. Several failed sale attempts. Management was pretty underwhelming. All of this despite kind of being in a decent spot as far as their products went. I dont doubt for one second that these assets/business could be significantly more valuable in the hands of MSFT than in its current state. Kind off funny though to think that MSFT paid $25B or whatever for LInkedIn and now they are paying this price for Nuance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 That's pretty cool: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527420/microsoft-xbox-tv-app-streaming-stick-xcloud?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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