Icahn ups stake in Nuance to 10.72 percent from 9.27 percent: filing

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn increased his stake in speech recognition and digital imaging software maker Nuance Communications Inc from 9.27 percent to 10.72 percent, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed on Tuesday.

Icahn, who is known for taking large "activist" positions in companies and pushing for management change, upped his passive stake in the company after its stock price plunged over 18 percent on Tuesday following weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and profit forecasts.

Nuance reported a net loss of $25.8 million, or 8 cents per share for the second quarter, compared with a profit of $890,000 a year earlier.

The company also forecast a third-quarter profit of 30 cents to 34 cents per share, excluding items, which was well below analysts' estimates of 49 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Apple Inc. uses Nuance's speech recognition technology in its iPhone devices as part of its "Siri" voice recognition feature.

Icahn was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Bernard Orr)