Wall Street is a-flurry with speculation that billionaire investor Carl Icahn may be looking to act as a matchmaker between Apple and Nuance Communications.
The chatter first kicked in several weeks ago when Icahn — who at the time had a 16.4 percent stake in Nuance, the maker of the popular Siri speech recognition technology — also revealed a “large position” in Apple.
Tamping expectations, however, was Icahn’s curiously passive position in Nuance in the form of a generic 13G regulatory filing.
That changed late Thursday when Icahn switched to a 13D filing, which warns companies of activist intentions. He announced an elevated 16.9 percent stake and said he thinks the shares are undervalued.
The change to a 13D reignited chatter that a deal between Nuance and Apple could be in the pipeline.
“It would be a small acquisition for Apple,” said hedge-fund consultant Charles Gradante, who thinks Apple could buy Nuance for $7 billion — mere pocket change for the gadget maker.
“Nuance is a leader in voice. Voice is the future. Apple needs to expand its future,” Gradante added.
Not everyone agrees that Apple and Nuance would make a good fit, however.
Some 45 percent of Nuance’s revenue comes from its work in the healthcare sector, which would be of little to no use to Apple, said Avondale Partners analyst John Bright.
Bright agrees that putting Nuance on the auction block could bring in a pretty penny for Nuance shareholders, but thinks companies like IBM, Microsoft and even Google would make for better suitors.
Of course, Icahn may have no intention of putting the company up for sale at all. In Thursday’s filing he merely said he may consider nominating people to the board of directors.