Microsoft's $16 billion acquisition of voice giant Nuance was approved by the European Union

Recently, the European Commission issued a statement on December 21 that it unconditionally approved Microsoft's acquisition of AI and voice technology company Nuance Communications for $16 billion.

A week ago, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would investigate Microsoft's acquisition. The CMA said it was considering whether the deal would lead to less competition in the UK home market. Interested parties could comment on the deal by Jan. 10, the agency said.

Wisdom Bud experts said that as of the latest, Microsoft and its affiliates have more than 160,000 patent applications in 126 countries/regions, of which Microsoft has 4586 patent applications in the field directly related to speech. From the perspective of patent application trends, the company's patent application trends in the above areas are in the form of a "V" shape. 2009 was the trough point of the company's patent technology applications and the lowest point of patent technology applications to date, with a total of 114 patent applications in that year.