Nuance Communications To Buy Back $500 Million Of Own Stock From Icahn Group

Nuance Communications Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to buy back $500 million of its own stock from billionaire investor Carl Icahn and some of his affiliates. Nuance will pay $19 per share, or a 6% discount to its closing price Wednesday, to buy 26.3 million of its shares. The deal will reduce Nuance's fiscal 2016 weighted average shares outstanding by about 14.3 million shares. The company will fund the deal through a mixture of $375 million of cash on hand and a promissory note with a face value of $125 million. The deal is expected to close on or around March 15. Shares were up about 0.5% in premarket trade, and are up 44% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has lost 2.6%.