Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Layoffs Continue: Workers Given Notice on Friday of Long (Holiday) Weekend, This Time Nuance

Didn't Microsoft say repeatedly and insist that chatbots are the future? The layoffs pattern does not match the hype pattern.

Nuance Communications, the speech-to-text pioneer bought by Microsoft last year, is cutting jobs as it focuses more narrowly on the health care market.



Summary: Published earlier today was this sole report (it's weekend and reporters are away, some on holiday); talk about bad timing to announce layoffs unless the whole point is brushing the news under a rug (there were also loads of Microsoft layoffs last week, but the media barely mentioned this; Microsoft changed the subject to "salaries")

Text behind the paywall: (the only publicly available information at this point)

Nuance Communications, the speech-to-text pioneer bought by Microsoft last year, is cutting jobs as it focuses more narrowly on the health care market.

Employees at Burlington-based Nuance received an e-mail on Friday from chief executive Mark Benjamin notifying them of the cutbacks as part of the continued integration with Microsoft, which paid nearly $20 billion for the company.

“We continue to see macroeconomic pressures affect our industries, as well as market shifts that are evolving our customers’ needs,” Benjamin wrote in the e-mail, which was obtained by the Globe. “It is critically important that we maintain our ability to make key investments in our businesses so that we can deliver on our current plans and are able to capitalize on the future opportunities we have ahead of us. In order to do this, we made the difficult decision this week to eliminate some positions across the company.”

Benjamin did not detail the scope of the layoffs at Nuance, which had about 7,000 employees when the Microsoft deal was announced in 2021. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Nuance has a long and winding history in developing image-processing and speech-recognition software and applications. The company started in 1994 as a spinoff from SRI International, the research center formerly known as the Stanford Research Institute. In 2005, Nuance merged with ScanSoft, a Xerox imaging spinoff that had roots with Ray Kurzweil and had also acquired speech technology of Lernout & Hauspie. The company’s voice recognition technology later was incorporated into Apple’s Siri digital assistant.

In 2019, Nuance decided to narrow its focus and spun off its automotive division as Cerence.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 08/12/2023: Cyber Resilience Act in EU and Denmark Embracing 'Blasphemy Law'
Links for the day
Linus Torvalds Cannot Easily 'Offend' Companies Anymore, But Weeks Ago He Explained Why (Linux Support and Hardware Documentation Has Significantly Improved)
new clip
Links 08/12/2023: Tidal and Simplilearn Layoffs
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 07, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, December 07, 2023
[Video] The Media Facilitates Microsoft's Abuse, Bribes, and Growing Threats to National Security
The failure of the media to properly and independently explain what's happening will continue to doom the media
[Video] The Next Ten Years of Techrights in a World With Changing Threats and Technological Landscapes (or Trends That Are Buzzwords/Cargo Cults)
The video of today talks about the site's (and capsule's plan) for the future
Wikipedia is Vandalism, Brought to You by Microsoft and Bill Gates
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Lennart Poettering and Fellow Microsofters Turn GNU/Linux Into Windows, Expect Poor Reliability With systemd-bsod
turning Linux into Microsoft Windows
The Effort to Silence (Squash) GNU/Linux Advocates and Press Coverage
If nobody even mentions it anymore, does it still exist?
Links 07/12/2023: Climate Events Occupied by Their Enemy, Workers Going on Strike
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 06, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 06, 2023
A Googlebombing Campaign Targeting "Gemini" Takes on E-mail, Too
Google can do Googlebombing too (the term is even named after it)
[Video] Microsoft Without a So-called 'Common Carrier' (Windows Monoculture)
Windows Has Fallen
[Video] To Combat Efforts to Cancel or Kill the Career (and Reputation) of the People Who Made GNU/Linux We Must Rally the Community
nobody speaks better for projects and for licences than their own founders
Rumour: Major Finance Layoffs at Microsoft Next Week
If the rumour is true, we'll be hearing barely anything from the mainstream media next week
Links 07/12/2023: More EPO Patents Squashed, More Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine "Glitches" Found
Links for the day
Still Not 'Canceled'
Ted Ts'o, Jan Kara, Linus Torvalds last month
Google is Googlebombing the Term "Gemini"
Could Google not pick a name that's already "taken"?
Links 06/12/2023: Bitcoin Rebound, China Downgraded by American Firm, Yahoo! Layoffs Again
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Shooting the Messenger Using Bribes and Secrecy Bonds
We seem to live in a world where accountability for the rich and well-connected barely exists anymore
The Myth of an Aging (or Dying) GNU/Linux Leadership
Self-fulfilling prophecies as a tactic?
Links 06/12/2023: Many More December Layoffs
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 05, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 05, 2023
PipeWire 1.0: Linux audio comes of age
Once upon a time, serious audio users like musicians and audio engineers had real trouble with Linux
This is How 'Linux' Foundation Presents Linux to the World
Right now it even picks Windows over Linux in some cases