Wall Street loves Nuance Communications Inc., whose stock is up nearly 5% early Tuesday afternoon after announcing a $293 million deal for VoiceSignal Technologies Inc. Shares in the acquisitive voice software maker have more than doubled in less than a year as the market for speech recognition gear finally takes off.

"Strategically speaking, we loudly applaud this deal, as adding VoiceSignal Technologies removes a very capable competitor and expands NUAN's footprint in the fertile mobile landscape, which is slowly, but surely, morphing into a major growth catalyst for the company," said Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Daniel Ives in a research note Tuesday on the transaction.

Nuance has also proved skillful in integrating its more than a dozen purchases. More broadly, among the factors driving demand for voice tech are increases in chip speed, falling memory costs and the emergence of new markets, including cell phones and cars, says investment guru James Hale in a January post on SeekingAlpha. —Alain Sherter

See May 15 story from TheDeal.com
See Dec. 8, 2006, story from TheDeal.com
See Jan. 11 post from SeekingAlpha