Nuance Communications on Wednesday unveiled plans to sell two of its business lines in a move to focus on its artificial intelligence work.
Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance plans to sell its health information management transcription and electronic health record go-live services business to a newly formed company, dubbed DeliverHealth Solutions, in early 2021. DeliverHealth is an independent company; however, Nuance is a minority shareholder and will provide it with technology support.
DeliverHealth was formed by Assured Healthcare Partners, part of Assured Guaranty's asset management business Assured Investment Management, and Aeries Technology Group, an information technology services company that offers outsourcing and business process management services.
Michael Clark, Nuance's senior vice president and general manager of provider solutions, will transition to a role leading DeliverHealth's 2,000 employees as CEO after the transaction closes.
Nuance has not disclosed financial details of the deal.
Nuance officials said the transaction will allow Nuance to focus its research and development resources on growing AI documentation tools for healthcare—such as voice recognition and ambient listening that automatically document patient visits, a capability that the company has been building up through a partnership with Microsoft Corp.
"With this strategic transaction, we're aligning our resources to increase our market and technical leadership position in high-growth, high-impact areas that help our customers in a transformative way to improve patient care and operational performance," said Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin in a statement.
Nuance has been homing in on developing its healthcare AI business for the past few years.
Last year, Nuance sold its document imaging business to automation software company Kofax and spun off its automotive business into a new company dubbed Cerence.
Nuance on Wednesday reported $386 million in annual recurring revenue from its cloud-based healthcare offerings in its fiscal 2020, up 29% year-over-year. The company posted $1.5 billion in full-year revenue, down 2.8% from the year prior, and $112.6 million in operating income, up 5.1% from the year prior.
