Nuance in talks to acquire Swype for $102.5M

A new SEC document filed by communication technology company Nuance today reveals that the company paid $102.5 million to acquire Swype — with $77.5 million  paid upfront and the remaining amount in 18 months.

Swype is best known for its touch screen-based predictive text technology, which allows people to draw (or swipe) characters instead of typing individual buttons on a graphical keyboard. Its Swype application is optimized for many different devices, like smartphones, tablets, TVs, gaming consoles and more.

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It’s not surprising that Nuance would be interested in buying Swype. Nuance’s T9 predictive text software, which is used on over 3 billion mobile phones worldwide, is a direct competitor to Swype’s application. Also, Swype’s co-founder Cliff Kushler created the T9 technology. So basically, Nuance would be eliminating competition, (potentially) gaining new talent and gaining a hot new product (the Swype application).

Founded in 2002, Seattle-based Swype has $13.9 million total funding from Samsung Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Benaroya Capital, DoCoMo Capital, Ignition Partners and others.