UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

Form 10-K

 

 

Commission file number 0-27038

 

NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

 

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code

(781) 565-5000

 

SECURITIES REGISTERED PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OF THE ACT:
None

 

 

SECURITIES REGISTERED PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(g) OF THE ACT:
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share
Preferred Share Purchase Rights

 

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes þ     No o

 

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.  Yes o     No þ

 

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.  Yes þ     No o

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  o

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer þ     Accelerated filer o     Non-accelerated filer o

 

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  Yes o     No þ

 

The aggregate market value of the outstanding common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant as of the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter was approximately $1,514,563,908 based upon the last reported sales price on the Nasdaq National Market for such date. For purposes of this disclosure, shares of Common Stock held by officers and directors of the Registrant and by persons who hold more than 5% of the outstanding Common Stock have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily conclusive.

 

The number of shares of the Registrant’s Common Stock, outstanding as of November 30, 2006, was 170,981,880.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Portions of the Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement to be delivered to stockholders in connection with the Registrant’s 2007 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

 

 

NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities laws that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that, if they never materialize or if they prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking, including statements pertaining to: our revenue, earnings, cash flows and liquidity; our strategy relating to speech and imaging technologies; the potential of future product releases; our product development plans and investments in research and development; future acquisitions; international operations and localized versions of our products; our contractual commitments; our 2007 revenue expectations and legal proceedings and litigation matters. You can identify these and other forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “intends,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements also include the assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in this Annual Report under the heading “Risk Factors.” All forward-looking statements included in this document are based on information available to us on the date hereof. We will not undertake and specifically decline any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Introduction

 

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Our technologies, applications and services are transforming the way people create, use and interact with information and make the experience of our end users a more compelling, convenient and satisfying one.

 

The value of our solutions is best realized in markets that are information and process-intensive, such as healthcare, telecommunications, financial services, legal services and government administration. We deliver premier, comprehensive technologies and services as an independent application or as part of a larger integrated system. We are an active participant in rapidly growing markets for speech, including healthcare dictation and transcription, call center automation, mobile search and communication and embedded technologies for consumer products. In imaging, we are positioned to benefit from increasing demand for PDF and networked imaging solutions.

 

Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance by calling directory assistance, getting account information over a telephone, dictating patient records, controlling mobile phones using their voice or reproducing documents that can be shared and searched. As of September 30, 2006, we have deployed thousands of speech applications for some of the world’s most respected companies, manufacturers and healthcare organizations. Our imaging devices are used by millions of business professionals and are included in hundreds of imaging devices and applications.

 

Today, we offer the world’s largest portfolio of speech and imaging products backed by the expertise of our professional services organization and a partner network that can create solutions for businesses and organizations around the globe. We market and distribute our products indirectly through a global network of resellers comprising system integrators, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, hardware vendors, telecommunications carriers and distributors; and directly to businesses and consumers through a dedicated direct sales force and our e-commerce website (www.nuance.com).

 

Our business is predicated on providing our partners and customers with a comprehensive portfolio of value-added solutions, ensuring technological leadership, promoting the broad adoption of our innovative technology and building global sales and channel relationships. From our founding until 2001, we focused exclusively on delivering imaging solutions that simplified converting and managing information as it moved from paper formats to electronic systems. In December 2001, we entered the speech market through the acquisition of the Speech & Language Technology Business from Lernout & Hauspie. We believed speech solutions were a natural complement

to our imaging solutions as both are developed, marketed and delivered through similar resources and channels. We continue to execute against our strategy of being the market leader in speech solutions through the organic growth of our business as well as through strategic acquisitions. We have successfully completed 15 acquisitions since 2000 and we expect to continue to make acquisitions of other companies, businesses and technologies to complement our internal investments. Acquisitions completed in recent fiscal years include the following significant transactions:

 

 

To partially finance our acquisition of Dictaphone, on March 31, 2006 we entered into a new senior secured credit facility which consists of a $355.0 million 7-year term loan and a $75.0 million six-year revolving credit line.

 

Nuance was incorporated in 1992 as Visioneer, Inc. under the laws of the state of Delaware. In 1999, we changed our name to ScanSoft, Inc. and also changed our ticker symbol to SSFT. In October 2004, we changed our fiscal year end to September 30, resulting in a nine-month fiscal year for 2004. In October 2005, we changed our name to Nuance Communications, Inc., to reflect our core mission of being the world’s most comprehensive and innovative provider of speech solutions, and in November 2005 we changed our ticker symbol to NUAN. Except as otherwise indicated, all references in this report to “Nuance”, “the Company”, “we”, “our” or “ScanSoft,” refer to Nuance Communications, Inc.

 

Market Opportunity

 

In the past decade, information has become an increasingly important resource for businesses and enterprises. The ability to access, exchange and manage information with speed and sophistication through various means — information systems, dictation processes, call centers, documents, mobile devices — is often an important characteristic of the most successful organizations worldwide. Many organizations define their strategy and assess their ability to compete and manage their customer relationships based on the quality, diversity and availability of their information products, services and resources. The format of vital information is wide and varied, ranging from the spoken word in multiple languages to customer database systems to paper, electronic files and Internet content.

 

Confronted by exponentially increasing information through more and more channels, consumers, business personnel and healthcare professionals employ a variety of resources for retrieving information, transcribing patient information, conducting transactions and performing their jobs. The Internet, telecommunications systems, wireless and mobile networks and related corporate infrastructure have emerged as powerful global communications networks and channels for conducting business.

 

These electronic systems have fundamentally changed the way organizations and consumers obtain information, communicate, purchase goods and conduct business. Today, businesses and manufacturers around the world share a common motivation to enhance the service they provide to their customers and differentiate their offerings while improving operating efficiency. Customer satisfaction, employee productivity and company operating results can often be linked to an organization’s ability to manage, utilize and communicate information effectively.

Nuance Solutions

 

We create technologies, applications and solutions that transform the way people access, share, manage and use information, both in business and in daily life. We help enterprises, professionals and consumers increase productivity, reduce costs and save time by developing and commercializing new technologies that make the user experience more compelling and productive. Our speech offerings utilize the human voice, and we are advancing towards our vision of the future where natural conversations will be the preferred interface for these interactions and will make the user experience more compelling. Our imaging solutions build on decades of experience and technology development to deliver businesses, manufacturers and consumers a broad set of PDF and document offerings.

 

We provide a broad set of speech and imaging offerings to our customers that increase their end users’ productivity, reduce costs and save time in the following areas:

 

Customer Care and Call Center Automation

 

Organizations turn to our speech solutions as a means to improve the quality of their customer care while reducing the associated costs and ensuring a positive customer experience. Our speech solutions allow users to direct their own calls, obtain information and conduct transactions by simply speaking naturally over any telephone.

 

Our speech solutions are used within a wide range of applications across many customer-service intensive sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, utilities, government, travel and entertainment. For example, our software is integrated into applications that provide flight information, personal banking, equipment repair and claims processing. We provide an extensive portfolio of speech technologies and applications that offer superior accuracy, support up to 49 languages and dialects for our speech recognition and offer 26 languages in our natural sounding synthesized speech. Our solutions adhere to global industry standards and we provide speech technologies and services in more languages than any other vendor worldwide.

 

These speech solutions are licensed to enterprises, such as those in the Fortune 1000, and telecommunications carriers. Although in certain cases we sell directly to our customer, the majority of our solutions are fulfilled through our channel networks comprised of telecommunications equipment companies, systems integrators and technology providers, such as Avaya, Cisco, Genesys, Intervoice and Nortel, that integrate our solutions into their proprietary hardware and software platforms.

 

We complement our technologies and products with a global professional services organization that supports customers and partners with business and systems consulting project management, user interface design and application development assistance. We service our customers from our corporate headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts and through other principal offices located in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Israel and Japan.

 

Healthcare Dictation and Transcription

 

The healthcare industry is under pressure to streamline operations and reduce costs while at the same time find new ways to improve patient care. In recent years, the healthcare industry — comprising hospitals, clinics, medical groups, physicians’ offices, insurance providers and service organizations — has increasingly turned to speech solutions to automate manual processes, especially with respect to dictation and transcription.

 

Today, clinical documentation is based largely on the manual transcription of recorded physician dictation, representing a significant industry worldwide. This presents an opportunity for us to apply speech technologies to automate manual processes, reduce costs, speed access to accurate data, and significantly improve patient care.

 

We are a leading supplier of speech recognition solutions to the healthcare industry through desktop and integrated OEM dictation products, and recently through complete transcription processing and workflow solutions. In March 2006, we acquired Dictaphone Corporation to expand our product portfolio, market reach and revenue streams within the large and rapidly growing healthcare vertical.

 

Today, more than 3,000 hospitals, clinics, and group practices, and over 400,000 physicians, use our Dictaphone healthcare solutions to manage the dictation and transcription of patient records. Our voice platform helps reduce the high cost of medical reporting, manage both a traditional transcription workflow and the use of in-

house speech recognition and reduce the reliance on manual transcription. Our enterprise-level speech recognition includes phone-based dictation, transcriptionist editing tools and physician self-completion control.

 

Desktop Dictation

 

Our desktop dictation applications increase productivity by using speech to create documents, streamline repetitive and complex tasks, input data, complete forms and automate manual transcription processes. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking family of products delivers enhanced productivity for professionals and consumers who need to create documents and transcripts. Professionals and consumers also look to our dictation solutions as a way to maximize the productivity of their existing workers, including those with disabilities, and to comply with government requirements relating to workplace safety and accessibility.

 

Our Dragon NaturallySpeaking solutions allow users to automatically convert speech into text at up to 160 words-per-minute. Our software supports a vocabulary of more than 300,000 words that can be expanded by users to include specialized words and phrases, is designed to adapt to individual voice patterns and accents and is able to achieve accuracy rates of up to 99%.

 

We offer a range of desktop and server solutions, each with features that match a specific customer target. Our dictation software is currently available in eight languages. We utilize a combination of our global reseller network and direct sales to distribute our speech recognition and dictation products.

 

Embedded Speech for Mobile Devices and Consumer Products

 

Voice capabilities are becoming ubiquitous in consumer and mobile devices, from cell phones and PDAs to automobiles and navigation systems. Our embedded speech solutions add voice control capabilities to these devices, allowing people to use spoken words or commands for dialing a mobile phone by saying a name, entering destination information into an automotive navigation system, dictating a text message or having emails and screen information read aloud.

 

Our embedded speech solutions identify specific words and phrases at any moment in time and convert these spoken words into instructions that control specific functions within applications. Our solutions support dynamic vocabularies and have sophisticated noise management capabilities that improve accuracy, even in noisy environments. Our products scale to meet the size and accuracy requirements for automotive and navigation systems and offer rapid application development tools, extensive compatibility with hardware and operating systems and support of multiple languages.

 

Our embedded speech solutions are used by automobile, cell phone, entertainment and aftermarket system manufacturers and their suppliers including Alpine, Bosch-Blaupunkt, Delphi, General Motors, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony and Visteon. These technologies are included as part of a larger system, application or solution that is designed, manufactured and sold by our customers. These customers include handset and other device manufacturers and tier-one suppliers; companies whose size and importance qualify them to be direct suppliers to the major automotive manufacturers as well as in-dash radio, navigation system and other electronic device manufacturers.

 

Mobile Search and Communication

 

The mobile device and wireless phone market is one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world and the opportunity to provide content, advertising, and services creates a significant opportunity. While many phones and devices today have Web and data capabilities, advanced mobile phone functionality and much of the available mobile content remains virtually invisible to users because it is too deeply hidden in confusing menu hierarchies. We believe speech technology provides a means to overcome these challenges and create growth for mobile services.

 

Our mobile speech solutions, comprising elements from many of our dictation, network and embedded speech solutions, offer an innovative approach to accessing search and communications services on mobile devices. We offer user interaction with mobile search and communications applications that enable consumers to significantly

increase the utility of their mobile devices, while enabling handset vendors and service providers to tap into significant new sources of revenue.

 

Our search and communication solutions allow consumers to use their voices to browse and download mobile content including ringtones, music, videos, wallpapers, and games; search local information databases for business listings, yellow pages, restaurant guides and movie schedules by naturally speaking their requests; dictate text messages to mobile instant messaging and mobile email dictation significantly faster than with the keypad; and allow wireless subscribers to access their personal or public address books, calendar and a range of information services using simple speech commands.

 

PDF and Document Imaging Solutions

 

Our PDF and document imaging solutions help businesses and consumers by automating a range of document processes — increasing productivity, saving time and reducing costs. With products for enterprises, small-to-medium-sized businesses and home offices, our ScanSoft Imaging Solutions offer cost-effective PDF applications for business users; convert paper and PDF into documents that can be easily edited; and simplify scanning and document management using multifunction scanners and networked digital copiers.

 

Our OmniPage product family uses optical character recognition technology to deliver highly accurate document and PDF conversion, replacing the need to manually re-create documents. Our OmniPage applications are used by individuals and in professional office settings. We utilize a combination of our global reseller network and direct sales to distribute our document conversion and PDF products. We license our software to companies such as Brother, Canon, Dell, HP and Xerox, which bundle our solutions with multifunction devices, digital copiers, printers and scanners. We also license software development toolkits to independent software vendors who use our technology for production capture or desktop applications, including vendors such as Autodesk, Canon, EMC/Captiva, Filenet, Kofax, Microsoft, Sharp and Verity.

 

Our PaperPort product family converts paper into digital documents that can be easily archived, retrieved and shared. Our software can be used in conjunction with network scanning devices to preserve an image of a document exactly as it appears on paper. Our software automatically indexes the scanned image so that it can be stored together with other digital documents on a desktop, over a network or within an enterprise content management system. We utilize a combination of our global reseller network and direct sales to distribute our digital paper management products. We also license our software to companies such as Brother, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox, who bundle our solutions with multifunction devices, digital copiers, printers and scanners.

 

Our PDF Converter product family comprises affordable solutions used to create PDF files and turn existing PDF files into fully-formatted Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Corel WordPerfect documents that can be edited. Our PDF solutions are used by business professionals and consumers and have proven to be a cost-effective alternative to those offered by Adobe Systems. PDF Converter Professional, our flagship PDF application, allows users to view, manipulate and edit PDF documents as well as create and complete PDF forms. PDF Create! is an affordable solution to enable the creation of PDF from all PC applications, including support for PDF security, font embedding and other advanced features.

 

Sales, Marketing and Distribution

 

We market and distribute our products through a variety of means, including indirectly through a global network of resellers, comprising system integrators, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, hardware vendors, telecommunications carriers and distributors and directly through our dedicated direct sales force and through our e-commerce website (www.nuance.com).

 

We have established relationships with more than 2,000 channel partners, including leading system vendors, independent software vendors, value-added resellers and distributors, through whom we market and distribute our products and solutions. In speech, companies such as Avaya, Bosch-Blaupunkt, Cisco, Delphi, Genesys, LG, Microsoft, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung and Visteon embed our technologies into telecommunications systems and automotive, PC, handset, healthcare or multimedia applications. In Imaging, companies such as Brother, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Visioneer and Xerox include our technology in digital copiers, printers and scanners, as well as

multifunction devices that combine these capabilities and companies such as Corel, Canon, Captiva, Kofax, Sharp and Verity embed our imaging technology into their commercial software applications.

 

We license our applications to enterprises, professionals and consumers through distribution and fulfillment partners, including 1450, Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Digital River. These distribution and fulfillment partners provide our products to computer superstores, consumer electronic stores, eCommerce Web sites, mail order houses and office superstores, such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, CDW, MicroWarehouse, Circuit City, CompUSA, Fry’s Electronics, Office Depot, PC Connection and Staples.

 

As of September 30, 2006, we had 448 full-time employees in sales and marketing, with 298 in the United States and 150 internationally.

 

Research and Development/Intellectual Property

 

In recent years, we have developed and acquired extensive technology assets, intellectual property and industry expertise in speech and imaging which provide us with a competitive advantage in markets where we compete. Our technologies are based on complex mathematical formulas which require extensive amounts of linguistic and image data, acoustic models and recognition techniques. A significant investment in capital and time would be necessary to replicate our current capabilities.

 

We continue to invest in our technologies to maintain our market-leading position and to develop new applications. Our technologies are covered by more than 550 patents or patent applications, expiring on various dates between 2006 and 2023. Our intellectual property, whether purchased and included as an asset on our balance sheet, or developed internally and thus not generally included as an asset on our balance sheet, is critical to our success and competitive position and, ultimately, to our market value. We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, services marks, trade secrets, confidentiality provisions and licensing arrangements to establish and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights.

 

As of September 30, 2006, we had 417 full-time employees in research and development. Our research and development expenses for the twelve months ended September 30, 2006 and 2005, and the nine months ending September 30, 2004 were $59.4 million, $39.2 million and $26.4 million, respectively.

 

International Operations

 

Our international headquarters are located in Belgium and we have additional principal offices in a number of international locations including: Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom. The responsibilities of our international operations include research and development, customer support, sales and marketing and administration. Additionally, we maintain smaller sales, services and support offices throughout the world to support our international customers and to expand international revenue opportunities.

 

Geographic revenue classification is based on the geographic areas in which our customers are located. For fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, 74%, 69% and 70% of revenue was generated in the United States and 26%, 31% and 30% of revenue was generated by our international operations, respectively.

 

For a discussion of risks attendant to our international operations, see Risk Factors — “A significant portion of our revenue is derived from sales in Europe and Asia. Our results could be harmed by economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with these and other international regions.”

 

Strategy

 

We focus on providing competitive and value-added solutions for our customers and partners through a broad set of technologies, service offerings and channel capabilities. To continue to provide industry leading solutions, through acquisitions and organic growth, we intend to:

 

Participate Broadly In Speech.  We intend to leverage our comprehensive technologies and leadership in speech to expand our opportunities in the call center, automotive, healthcare, telecommunications and mobile markets. We also intend to pursue emerging opportunities to use our speech technologies within consumer devices, games and other embedded applications. To expand our position in speech, we intend to introduce new versions of

our products and applications complete new license agreements with customers and partners that will resell our technologies; and continue to make strategic acquisitions that we believe complement our existing capabilities in the telecommunications, automotive and electronics markets.

 

Pursue Opportunities for Dictation and Transcription in Healthcare.  We intend to increase our investments and efforts in providing dictation solutions to the healthcare market, where we believe there is a large and attractive opportunity to automate transcription processes and information workflow. We have formed a healthcare-specific sales organization to aggressively pursue sales into healthcare provider organizations; expanded our reseller and system integrator channels within healthcare; and entered into OEM license agreements with leading healthcare IT hardware and software vendors.

 

Pursue Strategic Acquisitions.  We have selectively pursued strategic acquisitions to expand our technology, channel and service resources and to complement our organic growth. We expect to continue to make acquisitions of other companies, businesses and technologies to complement our existing capabilities and our internal investments in these areas and have a team that focuses on evaluating market needs and potential acquisitions to fulfill them. We have a disciplined methodology for integrating acquired companies and businesses after the transaction is complete.

 

Expand Worldwide Channels.  We intend to expand our global channel network and build upon our existing distribution channels, especially in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Along these lines, we have added sales employees in different geographic regions and launched programs and events to help recruit new partners for our channel network.

 

Expand PDF and Imaging Solutions.  We intend to enhance the value and functionality of our PDF and imaging solutions to enable enterprises to address the proliferation of PDF, the expanded use of content management systems and the widespread adoption of networked multifunction and digital scanning devices. We intend to continue to introduce new and improved versions of our products to take advantage of developing market opportunities. We also plan to enhance our software development toolkits so our technologies can be integrated with more third-party and OEM solutions.

 

Competition

 

The individual markets in which we compete are highly competitive and are subject to rapid technology changes. There are a number of companies that develop or may develop products that compete in our target markets; however, currently there is no one company that competes with us in all of our product areas. While we expect competition to continue to increase both from existing competitors and new market entrants, we believe that we will compete effectively based on many factors, including:

 

 

 

Within speech, we compete with AT&T, Fonix, IBM, Loquendo, Microsoft, Philips, Telisma and Voice Signal. Within healthcare dictation and transcription, we compete with Philips Medical, Spheris and other smaller providers. Within imaging, we compete directly with ABBYY, Adobe, eCopy, and I.R.I.S. In speech, some of our partners such as Avaya, Cisco, Edify, Genesys and Nortel develop and market products that can be considered substitutes for our solutions. In addition, a number of smaller companies in both speech and imaging produce technologies or products that are competitive with our solutions in some markets. Current and potential competitors have established, or may establish, cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase the ability of their technologies to address the needs of our prospective customers.

 

Some of our competitors or potential competitors in our markets, such as Adobe, IBM and Microsoft, have significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do. These competitors may be able to respond more rapidly than we can to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. They may also devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we do. See “Risk Factors — The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and rapidly changing, and we may be unable to compete successfully.”

 

Employees

 

As of September 30, 2006, Nuance employed 1,681 full-time employees worldwide in 16 countries, including 448 in sales and marketing, 417 in research and development, 329 in professional service consulting, 211 in customer service and support and 276 in general and administration, including information services personnel. Our employees are not represented by any labor union and are not organized under a collective bargaining agreement, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. We believe that our relationships with our employees are generally good.

 

Company Information

 

Our website is located at www.nuance.com. This Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to these reports, as well as proxy statements and other information we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) are accessible free of charge on our website. We make these documents available as soon as reasonably practicable after we file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. Except as otherwise stated in these documents, the information contained on our website or available by hyperlink from our website is not incorporated by reference into this report or any other documents we file with or furnish to the SEC.

 

You should carefully consider the risks described below when evaluating our company and when deciding whether to invest in our company. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we do not currently believe are important to an investor may also harm our business operations. If any of the events, contingencies, circumstances or conditions described in the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition or our results of operations could be seriously harmed. If that happens, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you may lose part or all of the value of any of our shares held by you.

Risks Related to Our Business

 

Our operating results may fluctuate significantly from period to period, and this may cause our stock price to decline.

 

Our revenue and operating results have fluctuated in the past and we expect our revenue and operating results to continue to fluctuate in the future. Given this fluctuation, we believe that quarter to quarter comparisons of our revenue and operating results are not necessarily meaningful or an accurate indicator of our future performance. As a result, our results of operations may not meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors in the future. If this occurs, the price of our stock would likely decline. Factors that contribute to fluctuations in our operating results include the following:

 

 

Due to the foregoing factors, among others, our revenue and operating results are difficult to forecast. Our expense levels are based in significant part on our expectations of future revenue, and we may not be able to reduce our expenses quickly to respond to a shortfall in projected revenue. Therefore, our failure to meet revenue expectations would seriously harm our operating results, financial condition and cash flows.

 

We have grown, and may continue to grow, through acquisitions, which could dilute our existing shareholders and could involve substantial integration risks.

 

As part of our business strategy, we have in the past acquired, and expect to continue to acquire, other businesses and technologies. In connection with past acquisitions, we issued a substantial number of shares of our common stock as transaction consideration and also incurred significant debt to finance the cash consideration used for our acquisition of Dictaphone Corporation. We may continue to issue equity securities for future acquisitions that would dilute our existing stockholders, perhaps significantly depending on the terms of the acquisition. We may also incur additional debt in connection with future acquisitions, which, if available at all, may place additional restrictions on our ability to operate our business. Furthermore, our prior acquisitions required substantial

integration and management efforts. Our recently completed acquisition of Dictaphone Corporation will likely pose similar challenges. Acquisitions of this nature involve a number of risks, including:

 

 

As a result of these and other risks, we may not realize anticipated benefits from our acquisitions. Any failure to achieve these benefits or failure to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies could seriously harm our business.

 

Purchase accounting treatment of our acquisitions could decrease our net income in the foreseeable future, which could have a material and adverse effect on the market value of our common stock.

 

Under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, we have accounted for our acquisitions using the purchase method of accounting. Under purchase accounting, we record the market value of our common stock or other form of consideration issued in connection with the acquisition and the amount of direct transaction costs as the cost of acquiring the company or business. We have allocated that cost to the individual assets acquired and liabilities assumed, including various identifiable intangible assets such as acquired technology, acquired trade names and acquired customer relationships based on their respective fair values. Intangible assets generally will be amortized over a five to ten year period. Goodwill and certain intangible assets with indefinite lives, are not subject to amortization but is subject to at least an annual impairment analysis, which may result in an impairment charge if the carrying value exceeds its implied fair value. As of September 30, 2006, we had identified intangible assets amounting to approximately $220.0 million and goodwill of approximately $699.3 million.

 

Our significant debt could adversely affect our financial health and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our credit facility.

 

We have a significant amount of debt. On March 31, 2006, we entered into a credit facility which consists of a $355.0 million 7-year term loan and a $75.0 million six-year revolving credit line. As of September 30, 2006, $353.2 million remained outstanding under the term loan and there were no outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit line. Our high level of debt could have important consequences, for example it could:

 

 

 

In addition, a substantial portion of our debt bears interest at variable rates. If market interest rates increase, our debt service requirements will increase, which would adversely affect our cash flow. While we have entered into an interest rate swap agreement limiting our exposure for a portion of our debt, such agreement does not offer complete protection from this risk.

 

We have a history of operating losses, and we may incur losses in the future, which may require us to raise additional capital on unfavorable terms.

 

We reported net losses of approximately $22.9 million, $5.4 million and $9.4 million for fiscal years 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. We had an accumulated deficit of approximately $190.1 million at September 30, 2006. If we are unable to achieve and maintain profitability, the market price for our stock may decline, perhaps substantially. We cannot assure you that our revenue will grow or that we will achieve or maintain profitability in the future. If we do not achieve profitability, we may be required to raise additional capital to maintain or grow our operations. The terms of any additional capital, if available at all, may be highly dilutive to existing investors or contain other unfavorable terms, such as a high interest rate and restrictive covenants.

 

We depend on limited or sole source suppliers for critical components. The inability to obtain sufficient components as required, and under favorable purchase terms, would harm our business.

 

We are dependent on certain suppliers, including limited and sole source suppliers, to provide key components used in our products. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, delays in component deliveries, which in turn could cause delays in product shipments and require the redesign of certain products. In addition, if we are unable to procure necessary components under favorable purchase terms, including at favorable prices and with the order lead-times needed for the efficient and profitable operation of our business, our results of operations could suffer.

 

Speech technologies may not achieve widespread acceptance by businesses, which could limit our ability to grow our speech business.

 

We have invested and expect to continue to invest heavily in the acquisition, development and marketing of speech technologies. The market for speech technologies is relatively new and rapidly evolving. Our ability to increase revenue in the future depends in large measure on acceptance of speech technologies in general and our products in particular. The continued development of the market for our current and future speech solutions will also depend on the following factors:

 

 

Sales of our speech products would be harmed if the market for speech software does not continue to develop or develops more slowly than we expect, and, consequently, our business could be harmed and we may not recover the costs associated with our investment in our speech technologies.

 

The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and rapidly changing, and we may be unable to compete successfully.

 

There are a number of companies that develop or may develop products that compete in our targeted markets. The individual markets in which we compete are highly competitive, and are rapidly changing. Within imaging, we compete directly with ABBYY, Adobe, I.R.I.S. and NewSoft. Within speech, we compete with AT&T, Fonix, IBM, Microsoft and Philips. Within healthcare dictation and transcription, we compete with Philips Medical, Spheris and other smaller providers. In speech, some of our partners such as Avaya, Cisco, Edify, Genesys and Nortel develop and market products that can be considered substitutes for our solutions. In addition, a number of smaller companies

in both speech and imaging produce technologies or products that are in some markets competitive with our solutions. Current and potential competitors have established, or may establish, cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase the ability of their technologies to address the needs of our prospective customers.

 

The competition in these markets could adversely affect our operating results by reducing the volume of the products we license or the prices we can charge. Some of our current or potential competitors, such as Adobe, IBM and Microsoft, have significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do. These competitors may be able to respond more rapidly than we can to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. They may also devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we do.

 

Some of our customers, such as IBM and Microsoft, have developed or acquired products or technologies that compete with our products and technologies. These customers may give higher priority to the sale of these competitive products or technologies. To the extent they do so, market acceptance and penetration of our products, and therefore our revenue, may be adversely affected.

 

Our success will depend substantially upon our ability to enhance our products and technologies and to develop and introduce, on a timely and cost-effective basis, new products and features that meet changing customer requirements and incorporate technological advancements. If we are unable to develop new products and enhance functionalities or technologies to adapt to these changes, or if we are unable to realize synergies among our acquired products and technologies, our business will suffer.

 

The failure to successfully maintain the adequacy of our system of internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse impact on our ability to report our financial results in an accurate and timely manner.

 

Our management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as of September 30, 2005, identified a material weakness in our internal controls related to tax accounting, primarily as a result of a lack of necessary corporate accounting resources and ineffective execution of certain controls designed to prevent or detect actual or potential misstatements in the tax accounts. While we have taken remediation measures to correct this material weakness, which measures are more fully described in Item 9A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we cannot assure you that we will not have material weaknesses in our internal controls in the future. Any failure in the effectiveness of our system of internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse impact on our ability to report our financial results in an accurate and timely manner.

 

A significant portion of our revenue is derived from sales in Europe and Asia. Our results could be harmed by economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with these and other international regions.

 

Since we license our products worldwide, our business is subject to risks associated with doing business internationally. We anticipate that revenue from international operations will continue to increase in their total U.S. dollar value. Reported international revenue, classified by the major geographic areas in which our customers are located, for fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004 represented approximately $100.2 million, $71.5 million and $39.4 million, respectively. Most of our international revenue is generated by sales in Europe and Asia. In addition, some of our products are developed and manufactured outside the United States. A significant portion of the development and manufacturing of our speech products are completed in Belgium, and a significant portion of our imaging research and development is conducted in Hungary. In connection with the Philips acquisition, we added an additional research and development location in Aachen, Germany, and in connection with the acquisitions of Locus Dialog and the former Nuance Communications, In., which we refer to as Former Nuance, we added additional research and development centers in Montreal, Canada. Our acquisitions of ART and Phonetic added research and development and professional services operations in Tel Aviv, Israel. Accordingly, our future results could be harmed by a variety of factors associated with international sales and operations, including:

 

 

 

We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.

 

Because we have international subsidiaries and distributors that operate and sell our products outside the United States, we are exposed to the risk of changes in foreign currency exchange rates or declining economic conditions in these countries. In certain circumstances, we have entered into forward exchange contracts to hedge against foreign currency fluctuations on intercompany balances with our foreign subsidiaries. We use these contracts to reduce our risk associated with exchange rate movements, as the gains or losses on these contracts are intended to offset any exchange rate losses or gains on the hedged transaction. We do not engage in foreign currency speculation. Hedges are designated and documented at the inception of the hedge and are evaluated for effectiveness monthly. Forward exchange contracts hedging firm commitments qualify for hedge accounting when they are designated as a hedge of the foreign currency exposure and they are effective in minimizing such exposure. With our increased international presence in a number of geographic locations and with international revenue projected to increase in fiscal 2007, we are exposed to changes in foreign currencies including the Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Israeli New Shekel and the Hungarian Forint. Changes in the value of the Euro or other foreign currencies relative to the value of the U.S. dollar could adversely affect future revenue and operating results.

 

Impairment of our intangible assets could result in significant charges which would adversely impact our future operating results.

 

We have significant intangible assets, including goodwill and intangibles with indefinite lives, which are susceptible to valuation adjustments as a result of changes in various factors or conditions. The most significant intangible assets are patents and core technology, completed technology, customer relationships and trademarks. Customer relationships are amortized on an accelerated basis based upon the pattern in which the economic benefit of customer relationships are being utilized. Other identifiable intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. We assess the potential impairment of identifiable intangible assets whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Factors which could trigger an impairment of such assets, include the following:

 

 

Future adverse changes in these or other unforeseeable factors could result in an impairment charge that would impact our results of operations and financial position in the reporting period identified. As of September 30, 2006, we had identified intangible assets amounting to approximately $220.0 million and goodwill of approximately $699.3 million.

If we are unable to attract and retain key personnel, our business could be harmed.

 

If any of our key employees were to leave us, we could face substantial difficulty in hiring qualified successors and could experience a loss in productivity while any successor obtains the necessary training and experience. Our employment relationships are generally at-will and we have had key employees leave us in the past. We cannot assure you that one or more key employees will not leave us in the future. We intend to continue to hire additional highly qualified personnel, including software engineers and operational personnel, but we may not be able to attract, assimilate or retain qualified personnel in the future. Any failure to attract, integrate, motivate and retain these employees could harm our business.

 

Our medical transcription services may be subject to legal claims for failure to comply with laws governing the confidentiality of medical records.

 

Healthcare professionals who use our medical transcription services deliver to us health information about their patients including information that constitutes a record under applicable law that we may store on our computer systems. Numerous federal and state laws and regulations, the common law and contractual obligations govern collection, dissemination, use and confidentiality of patient-identifiable health information, including:

 

 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 establishes elements including, but not limited to, federal privacy and security standards for the use and protection of protected health information. Any failure by us or by our personnel or partners to comply with applicable requirements may result in a material liability to us.

 

Although we have systems and policies in place for safeguarding protected health information from unauthorized disclosure, these systems and policies may not preclude claims against us for alleged violations of applicable requirements. There can be no assurance that we will not be subject to liability claims which could have a material adverse affect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property and Technology

 

Unauthorized use of our proprietary technology and intellectual property will adversely affect our business and results of operations.

 

Our success and competitive position depend in large part on our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property rights protecting our products and services. We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, confidentiality provisions and licensing arrangements to establish and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain, license, sell or otherwise use information that we regard as proprietary. Policing unauthorized use of our products is difficult and we may not be able to protect our technology from unauthorized use. Additionally, our competitors may independently develop technologies that are substantially the same or superior to ours and that do not infringe our rights. In these cases, we would be unable to prevent our competitors from selling or licensing these similar or superior technologies. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Although the source code for our proprietary software is protected both as a trade secret and as a copyrighted work, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others, or to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity. Litigation, regardless of the outcome, can be very expensive and can divert management efforts.

Third parties have claimed and may claim in the future that we are infringing their intellectual property, and we could be exposed to significant litigation or licensing expenses or be prevented from selling our products if such claims are successful.

 

From time to time, we are subject to claims that we or our customers may be infringing or contributing to the infringement of the intellectual property rights of others. We may be unaware of intellectual property rights of others that may cover some of our technologies and products. If it appears necessary or desirable, we may seek licenses for these intellectual property rights. However, we may not be able to obtain licenses from some or all claimants, the terms of any offered licenses may not be acceptable to us, and we may not be able to resolve disputes without litigation. Any litigation regarding intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and could divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations. In the event of a claim of intellectual property infringement, we may be required to enter into costly royalty or license agreements. Third parties claiming intellectual property infringement may be able to obtain injunctive or other equitable relief that could effectively block our ability to develop and sell our products.

 

On November 9, 2006, VoiceSignal Technologies, Inc. filed an action against us and eleven of our resellers in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. Damages were sought in an unspecified amount. In the lawsuit, VoiceSignal alleges that we are infringing United States Patent No. 5,855,000 which is related to improving correction in a dictation application based on a two input analysis. We believe these claims have no merit and intend to defend the actions vigorously.

 

On May 31, 2006 GTX Corporation (“GTX”), filed an action against us in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. Damages were sought in an unspecified amount. In the lawsuit, GTX alleged that we are infringing United States Patent No. 7,016,536 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Automatic Cleaning and Enhancing of Scanned Documents.” We believe these claims have no merit and intend to defend the action vigorously.

 

On November 27, 2002, AllVoice Computing plc (“AllVoice”) filed an action against us in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. In the lawsuit, AllVoice alleges that we are infringing United States Patent No. 5,799,273 entitled “Automated Proofreading Using Interface Linking Recognized Words to their Audio Data While Text is Being Changed” (the “’273 Patent”). The ’273 Patent generally discloses techniques for manipulating audio data associated with text generated by a speech recognition engine. Although we have several products in the speech recognition technology field, we believe that our products do not infringe the ’273 Patent because, in addition to other defenses, they do not use the claimed techniques. Damages are sought in an unspecified amount. We filed an Answer on December 23, 2002. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered summary judgment against AllVoice and dismissed all claims against Nuance on February 21, 2006. AllVoice filed a notice of appeal from this judgment on April 26, 2006.

 

We believe that the final outcome of the current litigation matters described above will not have a significant adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations. However, even if our defense is successful, the litigation could require significant management time and could be costly. Should we not prevail in these litigation matters, we may be unable to sell and/or license certain of our technologies we consider to be proprietary, and our operating results, financial position and cash flows could be adversely impacted.

 

Our software products may have bugs, which could result in delayed or lost revenue, expensive correction, liability to our customers and claims against us.

 

Complex software products such as ours may contain errors, defects or bugs. Defects in the solutions or products that we develop and sell to our customers could require expensive corrections and result in delayed or lost revenue, adverse customer reaction and negative publicity about us or our products and services. Customers who are not satisfied with any of our products may also bring claims against us for damages, which, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming to defend, and could result in costly litigation and payment of damages. Such claims could harm our reputation, financial results and competitive position.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure, Organization and Common Stock

 

The holdings of our two largest stockholders may enable them to influence matters requiring stockholder approval.

 

On March 19, 2004, Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm agreed to purchase all outstanding shares of our stock held by Xerox Corporation for approximately $80 million. Additionally, on May 9, 2005 and September 15, 2005 we sold shares of common stock, and warrants to purchase common stock to Warburg Pincus for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $75.1 million. As of September 30, 2006, Warburg Pincus beneficially owned approximately 23.4% of our outstanding common stock, including warrants exercisable for up to 7,066,538 shares of our common stock and 3,562,238 shares of our outstanding Series B Preferred Stock, each of which is convertible into one share of our common stock. Franklin Resources, Inc. is our second largest stockholder, owning approximately 5.3% of our common stock as of September 30, 2006. Because of their large holdings of our capital stock relative to other stockholders, each of these two stockholders acting individually, or together, have a strong influence over matters requiring approval by our stockholders.

 

The market price of our common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations.

 

Our stock price historically has been and may continue to be volatile. Various factors contribute to the volatility of our stock price, including, for example, quarterly variations in our financial results, new product introductions by us or our competitors and general economic and market conditions. While we cannot predict the individual effect that these factors may have on the market price of our common stock, these factors, either individually or in the aggregate, could result in significant volatility in our stock price during any given period of time. Moreover, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock often are subject to securities class action litigation. If we were the subject of such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources.

 

Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure may result in additional expenses.

 

Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new regulations promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the rules of the NASDAQ Global Select Market, are resulting in increased general and administrative expenses for companies such as ours. These new or changed laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies, which could result in higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We are committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure. As a result, we intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies, our business may be harmed.

 

We have implemented anti-takeover provisions, which could discourage or prevent a takeover, even if an acquisition would be beneficial to our stockholders.

 

Provisions of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and Delaware law, as well as other organizational documents could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would be beneficial to our stockholders. These provisions include:

 

 

 

None.

 

Our corporate headquarters and administrative, sales, marketing, research and development and support functions occupy approximately 105,000 square feet of space that we lease in Burlington, Massachusetts. We also lease additional properties in the United States and a number of foreign countries. The following table summarizes our significant properties as of September 30, 2006:

 

 

 

 

In addition to the properties referenced above, we also lease a number of small sales and marketing offices in the United States and internationally. As of September 30, 2006, we were productively utilizing substantially all of the space in our facilities, except for space identified above as “unoccupied” or that has been subleased to third parties.

 

Like many companies in the software industry, we have from time to time been notified of claims that we may be infringing certain intellectual property rights of others. These claims have been referred to counsel, and they are in various stages of evaluation and negotiation. If it appears necessary or desirable, we may seek licenses for these intellectual property rights. There is no assurance that licenses will be offered by all claimants, that the terms of any offered licenses will be acceptable to us or that in all cases the dispute will be resolved without litigation, which may be time consuming and expensive, and may result in injunctive relief or the payment of damages by us.

 

On November 9, 2006, VoiceSignal Technologies, Inc. filed an action against us and eleven of our resellers in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. VoiceSignal is seeking damages and injunctive relief. In the lawsuit, VoiceSignal alleges that we are infringing United States Patent No. 5,855,000 which is related to improving correction in a dictation application based on a two input analysis. We believe the claims have no merit and intend to defend the action vigorously.

 

On August 22, 2006, z4 Technologies, Inc. filed an action against us and five other defendants, including Symantec, Adobe, Quark, ABBYY and Mathsoft, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. Damages were sought in an unspecified amount. In the lawsuit, z4 Technologies alleged that we are infringing United States Patent Nos. 6,044,471 and 6,785,825 which are directed to a method and apparatus for reducing unauthorized software use. On December 4, 2006 we entered into a settlement agreement with z4 Technologies regarding this action.

 

On May 31, 2006 GTX Corporation, or GTX, filed an action against us in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. Damages were sought in an unspecified amount. In the lawsuit, GTX alleged that we are infringing United States Patent No. 7,016,536 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Automatic Cleaning and Enhancing of Scanned Documents.” We believe the claims have no merit and intend to defend the action vigorously.

 

On November 27, 2002, AllVoice Computing plc, or AllVoice, filed an action against us in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas claiming patent infringement. In the lawsuit, AllVoice alleges that the Company is infringing United States Patent No. 5,799,273 entitled “Automated Proofreading Using Interface Linking Recognized Words to Their Audio Data While Text Is Being Changed,” or the 273 Patent. The 273 Patent generally discloses techniques for manipulating audio data associated with text generated by a speech recognition engine. Although we have several products in the speech recognition technology field, we believe that our products do not infringe the 273 Patent because, in addition to other defenses, they do not use the claimed techniques. Damages are sought in an unspecified amount. We filed an Answer on December 23, 2002. On January 4, 2005, the case was transferred to a new judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas for administrative reasons. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered summary judgment against AllVoice and dismissed all claims against Nuance on February 21, 2006. AllVoice filed a notice of appeal from this judgment on April 26, 2006.

 

In August 2001, the first of a number of complaints was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on behalf of a purported class of persons who purchased Former Nuance stock between April 12, 2000 and December 6, 2000. Those complaints have been consolidated into one action. The complaint generally alleges that various investment bank underwriters engaged in improper and undisclosed activities related to the allocation of shares in Former Nuance’s initial public offering of securities. The complaint makes claims for violation of several provisions of the federal securities laws against those underwriters, and also against Former Nuance and some of the Former Nuance’s directors and officers. Similar lawsuits, concerning more than 250 other companies’ initial public offerings, were filed in 2001. In February 2003, the Court denied a motion to dismiss with respect to the claims against Former Nuance. In the third quarter of 2003, a proposed settlement in principle was reached among the plaintiffs, issuer defendants (including Former Nuance) and the issuers’ insurance carriers. The settlement calls for the dismissal and release of claims against the issuer defendants, including Former Nuance, in exchange for a contingent payment to be paid, if necessary, by the issuer defendants’ insurance carriers and an assignment of certain claims. The timing of the conclusion of the settlement remains unclear, and the settlement is subject to a number of conditions, including approval of the Court. The settlement is not expected to have any material impact upon Former Nuance or us, as payments, if any, are expected to be made by insurance

carriers, rather than by Former Nuance. In July 2004, the underwriters filed a motion opposing approval by the court of the settlement among the plaintiffs, issuers and insurers. In March 2005, the court granted preliminary approval of the settlement, subject to the parties agreeing to modify the term of the settlement which limits each underwriter from seeking contribution against its issuer for damages it may be forced to pay in the action. On April 24, 2006, the court held a fairness hearing in connection with the motion for final approval of the settlement. The court has yet to issue a ruling on the motion for final approval. On December 5, 2006, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the Court’s order certifying a class in several “test cases” that had been selected by the underwriter defendants and plaintiffs in the coordinated proceeding. The settlement remains subject to a number of conditions, including final court approval. In the event the settlement is not concluded, we intend to defend the litigation vigorously. We believe we have meritorious defenses to the claims against Former Nuance.

 

We believe that the final outcome of the current litigation matters described above will not have a significant adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations. However, even if our defense is successful, the litigation could require significant management time and will be costly. Should we not prevail in these litigation matters, our operating results, financial position and cash flows could be adversely impacted.

 

No matters were submitted to a vote of security holders in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 

Market Information

 

Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “NUAN”. The table below shows the high and low sale prices of our common stock for each quarter of the fiscal years ended September 30, 2006 and 2005, respectively, on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

 

 

Holders

 

As of November 30, 2006, there were 923 stockholders of record of our common stock.

 

Dividend Policy

 

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently expect to retain future earnings, if any, to finance the growth and development of our business and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. The terms of our credit facility place restrictions on our ability to pay dividends except for stock dividends (see Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results

of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources” and Note 10 “Debt” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements).

 

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

 

We have not announced any currently effective authorization to repurchase shares of our common stock. However, upon vesting of restricted stock awards, employees are permitted to return to us a portion of the newly vested shares to satisfy the tax withholding obligations that arise in connection with such vesting. The following table summarizes repurchases of our common stock during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, which represent shares returned to satisfy tax withholding obligations:

 

 

On October 23, 2004, our Board of Directors approved a change in the Company’s fiscal year end from December 31 to September 30, effective beginning September 30, 2004. All references in this Form 10-K to the fiscal 2004 refer to the nine month period ended September 30, 2004. References to fiscal 2005 and 2006, refer to the twelve month periods ended September 30. References to fiscal 2003 and prior years, refer to the twelve month periods ended December 31.

 

The following selected consolidated financial data is not necessarily indicative of the results of future operations and should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The interim statement of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2003 is unaudited and, in the opinion of management, reflects all adjustments, consisting of normal recurring adjustments,

necessary for a fair statement of results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2003. (Amounts in thousands, except per share dollars and percentages).

 

 

 

 

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis, or MD&A, is intended to help the reader understand the results of operations and financial condition of our business. MD&A is provided as a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements.

 

Forward-looking Statements

 

This annual report contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include predictions regarding:

 

 

You can identify these and other forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “intends,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements also include the assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing statements. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the risks described in Item 1A — “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Overview of the Business

 

We are a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Our technologies, applications and services are transforming the way people create, use and interact with information and make the experience of our end users a more compelling, convenient and satisfying one.

 

Our speech technologies enable voice-activated services over a telephone, transform speech into written word, and permit the control of devices and applications by simply speaking. With the acquisition of Dictaphone, we expanded our speech technologies in the automatic conversion of voice reports into electronic patient reports for a wide range of users in the transcription and healthcare industry. We expect our acquisition of Dictaphone to significantly expand our reach into the healthcare industry. Our imaging solutions offer cost-effective PDF applications for business users, convert paper and PDF into documents that can be easily edited, and simplify scanning and document management using multifunction scanners and networked digital copiers.

 

Our software can be delivered as part of a larger integrated system, such as systems for customer service call centers, or as an independent application, such as dictation, medical transcription, document or PDF conversion, navigation systems in automobiles or digital copiers on a network. In select situations we sell or license intellectual property in conjunction with or in place of embedding our intellectual property in software. Our products and technologies deliver a measurable return on investment to our customers and our goal is to help our customers optimize productivity and reduce costs.

 

We market and distribute our products indirectly through a global network of resellers comprising system integrators, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, hardware vendors, telecommunications carriers and distributors; and directly to businesses and consumers through a dedicated direct sales force and our e-commerce website (www.nuance.com).

 

Nuance was incorporated in 1992 as Visioneer, Inc. under the laws of the state of Delaware. In 1999, we changed our name to ScanSoft, Inc. and also changed our ticker symbol to SSFT. In October 2004, we changed our fiscal year end to September 30, resulting in a nine-month fiscal year for 2004. In October 2005, we changed our name to Nuance Communications, Inc., to reflect our core mission of being the world’s most comprehensive and innovative provider of speech solutions, and in November 2005 we changed our ticker symbol to NUAN.

 

Our business is predicated on providing our partners and customers with a comprehensive portfolio of value-added solutions, ensuring technological leadership, promoting the broad adoption of our innovative technology and building global sales and channel relationships. We continue to execute our strategy of maintaining leadership in speech and imaging through sustained growth in our ongoing operations as well as through strategic acquisitions that complement our existing capabilities.

 

Our focus on providing competitive and value-added solutions for our customers and partners requires a broad set of technologies, service offerings and channel capabilities. We have successfully completed and integrated 15 acquisitions since 2000 and we expect to continue to make acquisitions of other companies, businesses and technologies to complement our internal investments. We have a team that focuses on evaluating market needs and potential acquisitions to fulfill them. In addition, we have a disciplined methodology for integrating acquired companies and businesses after the transaction is complete. In recent fiscal years, we completed a number of acquisitions, including the following significant transactions:

 

 

 

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

The following table presents, as a percentage of total revenue, certain selected financial data for the twelve months ended September 30, 2006 and 2005, and the nine months ended September 30, 2004.

 

REVENUE

 

The following table shows total revenue by geographic location, based on the location of our customers, in absolute dollars and percentage change (in thousands, except percentages):

 

Total Revenue

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Total revenue for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006 increased by $156.1 million as compared to the fiscal year ended September 30, 2005. The increase was primarily due to $112.4 million of revenue related to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone. Organic total revenue increased $43.7 million, or 19%, in fiscal 2006. Included in this organic growth, network revenue increased 20%, dictation revenue increased 26% primarily as a result of the release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9.0, while embedded revenue increased by 37% and imaging revenue increased by 6%.

 

Based on the location of the customers, the geographic split in fiscal 2006 was 74% of total revenue in the United States and 26% internationally. This compares to 69% of total revenue in the United States and 31% internationally for the year ended September 30, 2005. The increase in revenue generated in the United States was primarily due to sales of Dictaphone products, 93.0% of which revenue is derived in in the United States. Excluding the Dictaphone revenue for fiscal 2006, 68% of total revenue was derived from customers in the United States and 32% internationally.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Total revenue for fiscal 2005 increased by $101.5 million as compared to fiscal 2004. The increase in revenue was due to several factors, including a twelve-month fiscal period in 2005, which included a seasonally strong fourth calendar quarter that contributed $60.6 million of total revenue. Excluding that incremental quarter, total revenue increased $40.9 million, or 31.2%. The substantial majority of the growth derived from comparative periods due to organic growth in product lines existing as of January 1, 2004 and to a lesser extent based on revenue related to acquisitions consummated in late fiscal 2004 and during fiscal 2005.

 

The geographic revenue split, based on the location of our customers, was 69% of total revenue in fiscal 2005 in the United States and 31% internationally. This compares to 70% of total revenue in the United States and 30% internationally for the nine month period ended September 30, 2004.

 

Product and Licensing Revenue

 

Product and licensing revenue primarily consists of sales and licenses of our speech and imaging products and technology. The following table shows product and licensing revenue in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2006 increased by $64.6 million compared to fiscal 2005. This increase in product and licensing revenue was primarily due to $39.8 million of revenue attributable to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone. Excluding the impact of these acquisitions, product and licensing revenue grew $24.8 million, or 15%, compared to the fiscal year ended September 30, 2005. Due to a change in revenue mix, driven primarily by the growth of maintenance and support revenue, product and licensing revenue as a percentage of total revenue declined 13% in fiscal 2006 as compared to fiscal 2005.

 

Speech related product and licensing revenue increased 56% in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2007, growing to 70% of total product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2006, up from 60% in fiscal 2005. Excluding revenue due to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone, speech related product and licensing revenue increased by $19.6 million, or 19%, in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005. The growth in speech revenue resulted from increased sales of our legacy network products, embedded products in automotive and handsets, as well as increased sales in dictation fueled by our fourth quarter release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0. Product and licensing revenue from our imaging products increased by $5.2 million, or 8%, due to increased sales of our PDF product family with the September 2006 release of PDF 4.0 and the May 2006 release of PaperPort 11.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2005 increased by $72.9 million compared to fiscal 2004. The increase in product and licensing revenue is generally attributable to the factors discussed above with respect to total revenue, including the seasonably strong fourth calendar quarter of calendar 2004 that contributed $46.8 million of increased product and licensing revenue. Excluding the revenue from the additional three-month period, product and licensing revenue increased $26.1 million, or 26.6%. The substantial majority of the growth in addition to the additional three months was growth from organic products that we had in our product portfolio as of January 1, 2004, and to a lesser extent was based on revenue related to recent acquisitions. Speech related product and licensing revenue increased to 60% of total product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2005, up from 55% of total product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2004. Expressed in dollars, revenue from speech related products totaled $104.2 million for fiscal 2005, as compared to $54.6 million for fiscal 2004. Within speech, network revenue remained relatively stable at 25% of total product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2005, while embedded revenue increased to 10% of total product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2005, up from 7% in fiscal 2004. The increase in embedded revenue was largely attributable to the acquisition of ART in January 2005. Dictation revenue in fiscal 2005 increased to 25% of total product and licensing revenue, up from 22% for fiscal 2004, primarily due to the release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8.0 in the first quarter of fiscal 2005, as well as the May 2005 acquisition of MedRemote.

 

Imaging related product and licensing revenue increased to $66.9 million for fiscal 2005, up 53% from fiscal 2004. Of this increase, 33% is due to the additional three months included in fiscal 2005, with the majority of the remaining increase attributable to increased sales of our PaperPort product family, which had a new release in the first quarter of fiscal 2005.

 

Professional Services, Subscription and Hosting Revenue

 

Professional services revenue primarily consists of consulting, implementation and training services for speech customers. Subscription and hosting revenue primarily relates to delivering hosted and on-site directory assistance and transcription and dictation services over a specified term. The following table shows professional

services, subscription and hosting revenue in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Professional services, subscription and hosting revenue for fiscal 2006 increased by $34.0 million as compared to fiscal 2005. The largest component of this increase in professional services revenue was $22.0 million of revenue due to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone. Included in the Dictaphone revenue is $16.0 million of revenue relating to the subscription and hosting customer base. Excluding the impact of these acquisitions, our professional services revenue increased by $12.0 million, or 26% compared to fiscal 2005, with most product lines contributing to this growth. Network services, excluding revenue attributable to Former Nuance, provided $9.0 million, or 26% organic growth, based on growth in core network consulting, subscription and hosting and training revenue.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Professional services, subscription and hosting revenue for fiscal 2005 increased by $22.0 million as compared to fiscal 2004. The increase in professional services revenue was partially attributed to the inclusion of the seasonably strong fourth calendar quarter of calendar 2004 that contributed $11.0 million of increased professional services revenue. In addition to the revenue from that extra three-month period, professional services revenue increased $11.0 million, or 43%. The substantial majority of the growth was derived from organic growth in products existing as of January 1, 2004 and a lesser portion was attributable to acquisitions made in fiscal 2005. The organic growth is primarily due to the continued demand for consulting services, both in project size and in the volume of projects. Also contributing to the total growth, but to a lesser extent, was revenue from subscription based licensing and hosting services.

 

Maintenance and Support Revenue

 

Maintenance and support revenue primarily consists of technical support and maintenance service for our speech products including network, embedded and dictation and transcription products. The following table shows maintenance and support revenue in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Maintenance and support revenue increased by $57.5 million in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005. As a percentage of total revenue, maintenance and support revenue grew 12.4% in fiscal 2006, up from 6% in fiscal 2005. $50.5 million of this increase is due to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone, both of which have a significant customer base of maintenance and support contracts from historic sales of product. Excluding the impact of these acquisitions, maintenance and support revenue increased $7.0 million, or 50%, in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005, due to our continued strong renewal rates as well as from new sales in our network products.

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Maintenance and support revenue for fiscal 2005 increased by $6.6 million compared to fiscal 2004. $2.8 million of this increase is attributable to the additional three months included in fiscal 2005. Excluding that incremental quarter, maintenance and support revenue increased $3.3 million, or 45%. The substantial majority of the growth derived from comparative periods was the result of organic growth in product lines existing as of January 1, 2004, and to a lesser extent the acquisitions consummated in late fiscal 2004 and during fiscal 2005.

 

COSTS AND EXPENSES

 

In fiscal 2006, stock-based compensation includes the amortization of the fair value of share-based payments made to employees and to members of our Board of Directors, under the provisions of SFAS 123R, which we adopted on October 1, 2005 (see Note 2, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, in the accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K). As a result of the adoption of SFAS 123R, we have recorded $22.5 million of expense related to share-based payments during fiscal 2006 as compared to $3.0 million in fiscal 2005 and $1.5 million in fiscal 2004. To isolate the effects of the accounting change and to facilitate comparative review of our operations between the fiscal 2006, fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2004 periods, we have presented below each cost and expense line in tabular format, with and without the amounts recorded in each period relating to share-based payments. Unless noted otherwise, discussion of fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005 represents discussion of costs and expenses excluding share-based payments.

 

Cost of Product and Licensing Revenue

 

Cost of product and licensing revenue primarily consists of material and fulfillment costs, manufacturing and operations costs, and third-party royalty expenses. The following table shows cost of product and licensing revenue including and excluding the cost of product and licensing revenue attributable to stock-based compensation, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of product and licensing revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Cost of product and licensing revenue, excluding share-based payments, for fiscal 2006 increased $10.9 million as compared to fiscal 2005 primarily due to $9.3 million of costs due to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone. As a percentage of product and licensing revenue, cost of product and licensing revenue increased 1.4% in fiscal 2006, largely due to Dictaphone products that have higher cost of goods sold relative to our other products. The added costs of goods sold for Dictaphone products are primarily due to third party hardware that is included in the solutions licensed to customers.

 

Excluding Dictaphone, in fiscal 2006 the cost of product and licensing revenue increased by $1.9 million, while declining to 9.2% of product and licensing revenue. The decrease as a percent of revenue was due to several factors. Most notably, the materials costs decreased by 0.7%, to 3.9% of product and licensing revenue, due to a decrease in imaging boxed products relative to speech products which carry lower materials costs. Additionally,

royalties decreased by $0.5 million compared to fiscal 2005 driven largely by contractual changes for our embedded product lines’ royalties.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Cost of product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2005 grew $10.0 million compared to fiscal 2004. This 96.9% increase is due to a number of factors, most significant of which is the additional three months included in 2005 as compared to 2004. Additionally, the expenses have increased along with the 75.2% growth in product and licensing revenue as compared to fiscal 2004. As a percentage of product and licensing revenue, cost of product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2005 increased to 11.9% as compared to 10.6% in fiscal 2004. This increase is primarily due to higher third party royalty expense that amounted to $4.2 million for fiscal 2005, compared to $1.2 million in fiscal 2004. The $3.0 million increase is due to a number of factors including more products that have royalties associated with them, higher royalties associated with renegotiated contracts with third parties for certain imaging products, and the 75.2% increase in product and licensing revenue. Partially offsetting the royalty increase was a modest decrease in material costs of product and licensing revenue, from 5.0% of product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2004 to 4.6% for fiscal 2005.

 

Cost of Professional Services, Subscription and Hosting Revenue

 

Cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue primarily consists of compensation for consulting personnel, outside consultants and overhead, as well as the hardware and communications fees that support our subscription and hosted solutions. The following table shows cost of revenue including and excluding the cost of revenue attributable to stock-based compensation, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue, excluding share-based payments, increased $22.5 million in fiscal 2006 as compared to fiscal 2005 primarily due to $14.9 million of costs due to our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone, both of which have robust professional services organizations to support revenue streams. Additionally, Dictaphone has a large subscription-based licensing and hosted application customer base. The 65.0% growth in costs supports the 71.9% growth in related revenue for fiscal 2006. Cost of professional services as a percentage of the revenue, excluding share-based payments, improved 2.9% as synergies were realized from the merging of the service teams from Former Nuance and Dictaphone. These improvements were offset partially by increased expenses for the subscription and hosting services.

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue for fiscal 2005 increased $14.2 million compared to fiscal 2004. This increase was due to a number of factors including the additional three months included in fiscal 2005. Additionally, incremental costs were necessary to support the 86.6% growth in related revenue. As a percentage of the related revenue, cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue for fiscal 2005 decreased to 73.2% compared to 80.4% in fiscal 2004. The percentage decrease in professional services cost as a percent of professional services revenue is attributable to a number of factors, including a reduction in outside consultant expenses and a more efficient utilization of existing headcount.

 

Cost of Maintenance and Support Revenue

 

Cost of maintenance and support revenue primarily consists of compensation for product support personnel and overhead. The following table shows cost of maintenance and support revenue including and excluding the cost of maintenance and support revenue attributable to stock-based compensation, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of maintenance and support revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Cost of maintenance and support revenue, excluding share-based payments, for fiscal 2006 increased $12.3 million compared to fiscal 2005 due primarily to $8.0 million of costs for the additional headcount to support the additional revenue from our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone. As a percentage of maintenance and support revenue, cost of revenue decreased 11.4% in fiscal 2006 to 24.1%. This decrease in percentage is primarily attributable to lower costs relative to the revenue in our healthcare maintenance and support business following our acquisition of Dictaphone. Speech margins, excluding the acquisition of Dictaphone, also improved in fiscal 2006, primarily due to synergies we realized upon the combination of pre-existing and acquired product lines following our acquisition of Former Nuance.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Cost of maintenance and support revenue for fiscal 2005 grew $2.4 million as compared to fiscal 2004. This increase was due to a number of factors including the additional three months included in fiscal 2005. Additionally, incremental costs were necessary to support the 79.6% growth in related revenue. As a percentage of maintenance revenue, cost of maintenance revenue increased 2.5% in fiscal 2005 as compared to fiscal 2004. The percentage increase was attributable to increased staffing made in advance of the anticipation of increasing revenue.

 

Cost of Revenue from Amortization of Intangible Assets

 

Cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets consists of the amortization of acquired patents and core and completed technology using the straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. We evaluate the recoverability of intangible assets periodically or whenever events or changes in business circumstances indicate that the carry value of our intangible assets may not be recoverable. The following table shows cost of revenue from

amortization of intangible assets in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets increased $3.8 million in fiscal 2006 as compared to fiscal 2005. The increase was primarily attributable to the $4.4 million in amortization of intangible assets acquired in connection with our acquisitions of Dictaphone in March 2006 and Former Nuance in September 2005. Additionally, the increase was due to $0.4 million in expense relative to amortization of the license that resulted from our December 4, 2006 settlement and licensing of technology from z4 Technologies, Inc. (refer to Note 23 of Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements for discussion of this subsequent event). In addition, during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, we determined that we would not make additional investments to support a technology licensed from a non-related third-party in 2003. As a result, we revised the cash flow estimates related to the purchased technology and recorded an additional $2.6 million in cost of revenue to write down the purchased technology to its net realizable value. These increases were offset in part by the cessation of the amortization of technology and patents that was established in connection with our acquisitions consummated in 1999 and 2000.

 

Based on the amortizable intangible assets as of September 30, 2006, and assuming no impairment or reduction in expected lives, we expect cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2007 to be $11.2 million.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets increased $0.7 million in fiscal 2005 as compared to fiscal 2004. The increase was attributable to the additional three months included in the fiscal 2005 period, partially offset by the net amount of amortization of intangible assets that became fully amortized in fiscal 2004 and new amortization on assets established in connection with our acquisitions during fiscal 2004 and 2005.

 

Research and Development Expense

 

Research and development expense primarily consists of salaries and benefits and overhead relating to our engineering staff. The following table shows research and development expense including and excluding the research and development expense attributable to share-based payments, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Research and development expense, excluding share-based payments, increased $15.9 million in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005 primarily due to a $12.9 million increase in compensation related expense associated with increased average headcount of 80 employees mainly resulting from our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone. The remaining increase was attributable to an increase in other headcount related expenses, including travel and infrastructure related expenses as we continued to invest in our products. While continuing to increase in absolute dollars, research and development expense has decreased relative to our total revenue. This decrease in expense as a percentage of total revenue reflects synergies following previous acquisitions.

 

We believe that the development of new products and the enhancement of existing products are essential to our success. Accordingly, we plan to continue to invest in research and development activities. To date, we have not capitalized any internal development costs as the cost incurred after technological feasibility but before release of products has not been significant. While we will continue to invest in research and development in fiscal 2007, we expect research and development expenses to decline as a percentage of revenue.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Research and development expense, excluding share-based payments, increased $12.8 million in fiscal 2005 as compared to fiscal 2004. The increase in expenses after reflecting the effect of the three months ended December 2004 in fiscal 2004, results in additional expenses of $3.9 million, or 11% in fiscal 2005 as compared to fiscal 2004 on an annualized basis. While increasing in absolute dollars, research and development expense decreased relative to our total revenue. This decrease in expense as a percentage of total revenue reflects synergies following previous acquisitions.

 

Sales and Marketing Expense

 

Sales and marketing expense includes salaries and benefits, commissions, advertising, direct mail, public relations, tradeshows and other costs of marketing programs, travel expenses associated with our sales organization and overhead. The following table shows sales and marketing expense including and excluding the sales and marketing expense attributable to share-based payments, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

Sales and marketing expense, excluding share-based payments, increased $43.2 million in fiscal 2006 as compared to fiscal 2005. $34.7 million of this increase was attributable to an increase in salaries and other variable costs, commissions and travel expenses relating to an increase in average headcount of 207 employees primarily resulting from our acquisitions of Former Nuance and Dictaphone and continued investment in the sales force for our existing products. In addition, our marketing expenses increased $7.8 million primarily to support new product releases made during 2006, including PaperPort 11 and Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.0, as well as additional marketing expenses of Dictaphone and Former Nuance products. While the expense in absolute dollars increased,

sales and marketing expense as a percentage of revenue decreased as we achieved higher sales volumes while controlling our cost structure.

 

We expect sales and marketing expenses to increase as we continue to pursue our strategic goals. While increasing in absolute dollars, we expect to see a decrease in sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue in fiscal 2007 as the expected revenue growth outpaces the expenses in this area.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

Sales and marketing expense, excluding share-based payments, increased $28.8 million in fiscal 2005 compared to fiscal 2004. The increase in expenses after reflecting the effect of the three months ended December 2004, resulted in additional expenses of $10.2 million, or 15% in fiscal 2005 compared to fiscal 2004 on an annualized basis. While increasing in absolute dollars, sales and marketing expense as a percent of total revenue dropped 4.0% in fiscal 2005 compared to fiscal 2004. Decreases in expenses as a percent of revenue were derived largely from an improved efficiency of the sales organization, allowing for total compensation of sales and marketing employees to decrease as a percentage of revenue, to 18.9% of total revenue for fiscal 2005, down from 21.1% for fiscal 2004. Additionally, while the cost of marketing programs increased in absolute dollars to $16.9 million for fiscal 2005 from $10.7 million for fiscal 2004, this represents a decrease in terms of the percentage compared to total revenue of 0.9%, from 8.2% in fiscal 2004 to 7.3% in fiscal 2005.

 

General and Administrative Expense

 

General and administrative expenses primarily consist of personnel costs, (including overhead), for administration, finance, human resources, information systems, facilities and general management, fees for external professional advisors including accountants and attorneys, insurance, and provisions for doubtful accounts. The following table shows general and administrative expense including and excluding the general and administrative expense attributable to share-based payments, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2006 Compared to Fiscal 2005

 

General and administrative expense, excluding share-based payments, increased $17.7 million in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005. The acquisition of Dictaphone contributed $7.7 million of this increase, including $3.0 million paid to Dictaphone staff for non-recurring activities necessary to transition knowledge and processes post-acquisition and $0.8 million in non-recurring activities performed by certain advisors who supported planning and integration efforts for this acquisition. General and administrative expenses, excluding those related to Dictaphone, increased $10.0 million due primarily to compensation for increased employees and external contractors in the finance, human resources, legal and other general and administrative functions. This increase in spending on staff and contractors was related to the integration of the acquisitions we made in fiscal 2005, as well as to compliance with new regulations, such as the implementation of SFAS 123R in fiscal 2006. These new initiatives were partially offset by a reduction in overall costs for staffing and contractors needed to comply with the provisions of Sarbanes Oxley in fiscal 2006 compared to fiscal 2005. While the expense increased in absolute

dollars, general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue decreased as we achieved higher sales volumes while controlling our cost structure.

 

We expect to continue to see general and administrative expenses as a percentage of total revenue decrease as revenue growth outpaces expense growth. Notwithstanding the decrease as a percentage of total revenue, we expect to increase the total amount expended relating to general and administrative expenses as we support the growth of our business.

 

Fiscal 2005 Compared to Fiscal 2004

 

General and administrative expense, excluding share-based payments, increased $13.6 million in fiscal 2005 compared to fiscal 2004. The increase in expenses after reflecting the effect of the three months ended December 2004 in fiscal 2004, results in additional expenses of $6.3 million, or 24.7% in fiscal 2005 as compared to fiscal 2004 on an annualized basis. The increase in fiscal 2005 was primarily the result of costs relating to incremental headcount and fees for professional consultants. The costs relating to headcount were mainly attributable to additional team members in the finance, facilities and IT departments. The increase in expenditures for professional consultants includes fees for Sarbanes Oxley compliance, accounting and legal advisors, and advisors supporting our planning and integration efforts related to our acquisition of Former Nuance.

 

Amortization of Other Intangible Assets

 

Amortization of other intangible assets into operating expense includes amortization of acquired customer and contractual relationships, non-competition agreements and acquired trade names and trademarks. Customer relationships are amortized on an accelerated basis based upon the pattern in which the economic benefit of customer relationships are being utilized. Other identifiable intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. We evaluate these assets for impairment and for appropriateness of their remaining life on an ongoing basis. The following table shows amortization of other intangible assets in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in thousands, except percentages):