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Nuance Communications

Nuance Communications, now part of Microsoft, develops speech recognition software including the Dragon family for professional, legal and law-enforcement users. Dragon desktop software is licensed per user, either perpetually or for a subscription term.

Licensing at a Glance

  • Named user
  • Perpetual licence
  • Subscription

  1. Nuance's website states that Nuance is now Microsoft.[1]

  2. For each user licence in an order, the Dragon Professional, Legal and Law Enforcement v16 EULA grants a non-exclusive, non-transferable right for a single user to use the software, for the term of the order unless the licence is perpetual.[2]

  3. With a perpetual Dragon licence, maintenance and support can be bought annually as an option; with a term-based licence, maintenance and support are included in the subscription fee for the subscription term.[3]

  4. The Dragon v16 EULA prohibits transferring or assigning the licence or software to a third party without Nuance's prior written consent, and prohibits publishing benchmark results against competing software unless the law provides otherwise.[4]

  5. Dragon Professional is offered with volume licensing, and the Nuance Management Center is used to deploy users, share custom words and commands, add users and redistribute licences.[5]

Products

References

  1. Nuance - Achieve even more. Nuance is now Microsoft. | Nuance · nuance.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. End User License Agreement - Dragon Professional v16, Dragon Law Enforcement v16, and Dragon Legal v16 Software · nuance.com · effective 2022-11 · retrieved 2026-09-27
  3. End User License Agreement - Dragon Professional v16, Dragon Law Enforcement v16, and Dragon Legal v16 Software · nuance.com · effective 2022-11 · retrieved 2026-09-27
  4. End User License Agreement - Dragon Professional v16, Dragon Law Enforcement v16, and Dragon Legal v16 Software · nuance.com · effective 2022-11 · retrieved 2026-09-27
  5. Buy Dragon Professional - Speech Recognition | Nuance · dragon.nuance.com · retrieved 2026-09-27

Product History

All acquisitions
  1. Microsoft acquired Nuance CommunicationsAnnounced 2021-04-12 · Closed 2022-03-04 · USD 19.7 billion including net debt, USD 56.00 per share in cash (as announced)

    Microsoft acquired Nuance, a provider of conversational AI and ambient clinical intelligence, in an all-cash transaction. Nuance results were reported in the Intelligent Cloud segment and its healthcare products later fed into Microsoft Dragon Copilot.

    Legacy productBecame
    Dragon Medical OneMerged into Microsoft Dragon Copilot · Dictation combined with DAX Copilot ambient listening; announced 3 March 2025
    DAX CopilotMerged into Microsoft Dragon Copilot · General availability in the US and Canada from May 2025, other markets later
    Nuance healthcare cloud AI solutionsKept Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare · Positioned alongside the Microsoft healthcare industry cloud at announcement
    Licensing impact
    • Nuance continued under its CEO, who reported to the Microsoft Cloud and AI group executive vice president, and its financial results were incorporated into the Intelligent Cloud segment.[1][2]
    • In March 2025 Microsoft announced Dragon Copilot, which combines Dragon Medical One voice dictation and DAX Copilot ambient listening in one application, with general availability planned for the US and Canada in May 2025, followed by the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.[3]
    Sources and full product history
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