Nuance Communications (NUAN)

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:

 

 

SECURITIES REGISTERED PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(g) OF THE ACT:

 

None

 

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 whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).  Yes o     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.  þ

 

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

 

(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)

 

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 $2.3 billion 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 October 31, 2009, was 278,666,124.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Portions of the Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement to be delivered to stockholders in connection with the Registrant’s 2010 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

 

 

NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

PART I

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that, if they never materialize or if they prove incorrect, could cause our consolidated 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; 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 fiscal 2010 revenue and expense 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 Item 1A of 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.

 

 

Overview

 

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech, imaging and keypad solutions for businesses, organizations and consumers around the world. Our technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems, and how they create, share and use documents. Our solutions are used every day by millions of people and thousands of businesses for tasks and services such as requesting information from a phone-based self-service solution, dictating medical records, searching the mobile Web by voice, entering a destination into a navigation system, or working with PDF documents. Our solutions help make these interactions, tasks and experiences more productive, compelling and efficient.

 

We leverage our global professional services organization and our extensive network of partners to design and deploy innovative solutions for businesses and organizations around the globe. We market and distribute our products through a global network of resellers, including system integrators, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, hardware vendors, telecommunications carriers and distributors, and also sell directly through a dedicated sales force and through our e-commerce website.

 

We have built a world-class portfolio of intellectual property, technologies, applications and solutions through both internal development and acquisitions. We expect to continue to pursue opportunities to expand our assets, geographic presence, distribution network and customer base through acquisitions of other businesses and technologies.

 

Solutions offered in our three core markets; Mobile-Enterprise, Healthcare-Dictation, and Imaging, include:

 

Healthcare Solutions — The healthcare industry is under significant pressure to streamline operations, reduce costs and improve patient care. In recent years, healthcare organizations such as hospitals, clinics, medical groups, physicians’ offices and insurance providers have increasingly turned to speech solutions to automate manual processes such as the dictation and transcription of patient records.

 

We provide comprehensive dictation and transcription solutions and services that automate the input and management of medical information. Our hosted and on-premise solutions provide platforms to generate and distribute clinical documentation through the use of advanced dictation and transcription features, and allow us to deliver scalable, highly productive medical transcription solutions, as well as accelerate future innovation to transform the way healthcare providers document patient care. We also offer speech recognition solutions for

radiology, cardiology, pathology and related specialties, that help healthcare providers dictate, edit and sign reports without manual transcription.

 

Hospitals, clinics and group practices, as well as physicians, use our healthcare solutions to manage the dictation and transcription of patient records. We utilize a focused, enterprise sales team and professional services organization to address the market and implementation requirements of the healthcare industry. Our fiscal 2008 acquisition of Philips Speech Recognition Systems significantly enhanced our ability to deliver innovative, speech-driven clinical documentation and communication solutions to healthcare organizations throughout Europe. In some cases, our healthcare solutions are priced under a traditional software perpetual licensing model. However, certain of our healthcare solutions, in particular our transcription solution, are also offered on an on-demand model, charged as a subscription and priced by volume of usage (such as number of lines transcribed). During fiscal 2009, we experienced a significant shift in customer preference toward our subscription pricing model.

 

Enterprise Solutions — To remain competitive, organizations must improve the quality of customer care while reducing costs and ensuring a positive customer experience. Technological innovation, competitive pressures and rapid commoditization have made it increasingly important for organizations to achieve enduring market differentiation and secure customer loyalty. In this environment, organizations need to satisfy the expectations of increasingly savvy and mobile consumers who demand high levels of customer service.

 

We deliver a portfolio of customer service business intelligence and authentication solutions that are designed to help companies better support, understand and communicate with their customers. Our solutions improve the customer experience, increase the use of self-service and enable new revenue opportunities. We complement our solutions and products with a global professional services organization that supports customers and partners with business and systems consulting project management, user-interface design, speech science, application development and business performance optimization, allowing us to deliver end-to-end speech solutions and system integration for speech-enabled customer care. In addition, we offer solutions that can meet customer care needs through direct interaction with thin-client applications on cell phones, enabling customers to very quickly retrieve relevant information. Use of our speech-enabled and thin-client customer care solutions can dramatically decrease customer care costs, in comparison to calls handled by operators. Our acquisition of SNAPin, Inc., a developer of self-service software for mobile devices, during fiscal 2009 expanded our presence and capabilities in these areas.

 

Our solutions are used by a wide variety of enterprises in customer-service intensive sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, travel and entertainment, and government. Our speech solutions are designed to serve our global partners and customers and are available in up to 50 languages and dialects worldwide. In addition to our own sales and professional services teams, we often work closely with industry partners, including Avaya, Cisco and Genesys, that integrate our solutions into their hardware and software platforms. Our enterprise solutions offerings include both a traditional software perpetual licensing model and an on-demand model, charged as a subscription and priced by volume of usage (such as number of minutes callers use the system or number of calls completed in the system).

 

Mobile Solutions — Today, an increasing number of people worldwide rely on mobile devices to stay connected, informed and productive. We help consumers use the powerful capabilities of their phones, cars and personal navigation devices by enabling the use of voice commands and keypad solutions to control these devices more easily and naturally, and to access the array of content and services available on the Internet.

 

Our portfolio of mobile solutions and services includes an integrated suite of voice and text-to-speech solutions, predictive text technologies, mobile messaging services and emerging services such as Web search and voicemail-to-text. Our solutions are used by mobile phone, automotive, personal navigation device and other consumer electronic manufacturers and their suppliers, including Amazon, Apple, BMW, Ford, Garmin, LG Electronics, Mercedes Benz, Nokia, Samsung and TomTom. In addition, telecommunications carriers, web search companies and content providers are increasingly using our mobile search and communication solutions to offer value-added services to their subscribers and customers. Our mobile solutions are sold to device manufacturers, on a royalty model, generally priced per device sold. In addition, our mobile solutions are sold through telecommunications carriers or directly to consumers, and priced on a volume of usage model (such as per subscriber or per use). During fiscal 2009, we expanded our mobile presence and product offerings through our acquisitions of

Zi Corporation; nCore Ltd.; Jott Networks, Inc.; and certain assets from Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH.

 

Desktop Dictation — Our suite of general purpose desktop dictation applications increases productivity by using speech to create documents, streamline repetitive and complex tasks, input data, complete forms and automate manual transcription processes. Our Dragon NaturallySpeaking family of products delivers enhanced productivity for professionals and consumers who need to create documents and transcripts. These solutions allow users to automatically convert speech into text at up to 160 words-per-minute, with support for over 300,000 words and with high accuracy. This vocabulary can be expanded by users to include specialized words and phrases and can be adapted to recognize individual voice patterns. Our desktop dictation software is currently available in eleven languages. We utilize a combination of our global reseller network and direct sales to distribute our desktop dictation products. Our desktop dictation solutions are generally sold under a traditional perpetual software license model.

 

Imaging — The proliferation of the Internet, email and other networks have greatly simplified the ability to share electronic documents, resulting in an ever-growing volume of documents to be used and stored. Our PDF and document imaging solutions reduce the costs associated with paper documents through easy to use scanning, document management and electronic document routing solutions. We offer versions of our products to hardware vendors, home offices, small businesses and enterprise customers.

 

Our imaging solutions offer comprehensive PDF applications designed specifically for business users, optical character recognition technology to deliver highly accurate document and PDF conversion, and applications that combine PDF creation with network scanning to quickly enable distribution of documents to users’ desktops or to enterprise applications, as well as software development toolkits for independent software vendors. Our imaging solutions are generally sold under a traditional perpetual software license model. We utilize a combination of our global reseller network and direct sales to distribute our imaging products. We license our software to original equipment manufacturers such as Brother, Canon, Dell, HP and Xerox, which bundle our solutions with multifunction devices, digital copiers, printers and scanners, on a royalty model, priced per unit sold. During fiscal 2009, we expanded our imaging product offerings through our June 2009 acquisition of X-Solutions Group B.V. and September 2009 acquisition of eCopy, Inc.

 

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 that provide us with a competitive advantage in our markets. Our technologies are based on complex algorithms 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 technologies to maintain our market-leading position and to develop new applications. Our technologies are covered by approximately 1,800 issued patents and 1,600 patent applications. Our intellectual property, whether purchased or developed internally, is critical to our success and competitive position and, ultimately, to our market value. We rely on a portfolio of patents, copyrights, trademarks, services marks, trade secrets, confidentiality provisions and licensing arrangements to establish and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. We incurred research and development expenses of $119.4 million, $115.0 million, and $80.0 million in fiscal 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively.

 

International Operations

 

We have principal offices in a number of international locations including: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The responsibilities of our international operations include research and development, healthcare transcription and editing, 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 2009, 2008 and 2007, 74%, 77% and 78% of revenue was generated in the United States and 26%, 23% and 22% of revenue was generated by our international operations, respectively.

 

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:

 

 

In our core markets, we compete with companies such as Adobe, Medquist, Microsoft, Google and Spheris. 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. In certain markets, some of our partners such as Avaya, Cisco, Genesys and Nortel develop and market products and services that might be considered substitutes for 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.

 

Some of our competitors or potential competitors, such as Adobe, Microsoft and Google, 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.

 

Employees

 

As of September 30, 2009, we had approximately 5,800 full-time employees in total, including approximately 700 in sales and marketing, approximately 1,150 in professional services, approximately 950 in research and development, approximately 450 in general and administrative and approximately 2,550 that provide transcription and editing services. Approximately 51 percent of our employees are based outside of the United States, the majority of whom provide transcription and editing services and are based in India. 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

 

We were 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 2005, we changed our name to Nuance Communications, Inc. and in November 2005 we changed our ticker symbol to NUAN.

 

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, or the 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. Our SEC filings are also available on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. Alternatively, you may access any document we have filed by visiting the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20549. Information on the operation of the Public Reference Room can be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. 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 are expected to continue to fluctuate in the future. Given this fluctuation, we believe that quarter to quarter comparisons of 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 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 stockholders.

 

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 acquisitions. We may continue to issue equity securities for future acquisitions, which would dilute existing stockholders, perhaps significantly depending on the terms of such acquisitions. 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.

 

Our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions will depend on successfully integrating the acquired businesses.

 

Our prior acquisitions required, and our recently completed acquisitions continue to require, substantial integration and management efforts and we expect future acquisitions to require similar efforts. Acquisitions of this nature involve a number of risks, including:

 

 

As a result of these and other risks, if we are unable to successfully integrate acquired businesses, we may not realize the 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.

 

Accounting treatment of our acquisitions could decrease our net income or expected revenue 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 record the market value of our common stock or other form of consideration issued in connection with the acquisition and, for transactions which closed prior to October 1, 2009, 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 tradenames 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 are subject to an impairment analysis, at least annually, which may result in an impairment charge if the carrying value exceeds its implied fair value. As of September 30, 2009, we had identified intangible assets of approximately $706.8 million, net of accumulated amortization, and goodwill of approximately $1.9 billion. In addition, purchase accounting limits our ability to recognize certain revenue that otherwise would have been recognized by the acquired company as an independent business. The combined company may delay revenue recognition or recognize less revenue than we and the acquired company would have recognized as independent companies.

 

Changes in the accounting method for business combinations may have an adverse impact on our reported or future financial results.

 

For the years ended September 30, 2009 and prior, in accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (“SFAS”) 141 “Business Combinations,” (“SFAS 141”), all acquisition-related costs, such as attorney’s fees and accountant’s fees, as well as contingent consideration to the seller, which is recorded when it is beyond a reasonable doubt that the amount is payable, are capitalized as part of the purchase price.

 

In December 2007, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued SFAS No. 141 (revised 2007), “Business Combinations,” (“SFAS 141R”), now referred to as FASB Accounting Standards Codification 805 (“ASC 805”), which requires an acquirer to do the following: expense acquisition-related costs as incurred; reflect such payments as a reduction of cash flow from operations; record contingent consideration at fair value at the acquisition date with subsequent changes in fair value to be recognized in the income statement and cash flow from operations. ASC 805 applies to business combinations for which the acquisition date is on or after October 1, 2009. ASC 805 may have a material impact on our results of operations and our financial position due to our acquisition strategy.

 

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

 

We have a significant amount of debt. As of September 30, 2009, we had a total of $900.7 million of gross debt outstanding, including $650.3 million in term loans due in March 2013 and $250.0 million in convertible debentures which investors may require us to redeem in August 2014. We also have a $75.0 million revolving credit line available to us through March 2012. As of September 30, 2009, there were $16.2 million of letters of credit issued under the revolving credit line but there were no other outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit line. Our debt level could have important consequences, for example it could:

 

 

 

Our ability to meet our payment and other obligations under our debt instruments depends on our ability to generate significant cash flow in the future. This, to some extent, is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative and regulatory factors as well as other factors that are beyond our control. We cannot assure you that our business will generate cash flow from operations, or that additional capital will be available to us, in an amount sufficient to enable us to meet our payment obligations under the convertible debentures and our other debt and to fund other liquidity needs. If we are not able to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt obligations, we may need to refinance or restructure our debt, including the convertible debentures, sell assets, reduce or delay capital investments, or seek to raise additional capital. If we are unable to implement one or more of these alternatives, we may not be able to meet our payment obligations under the convertible debentures and our other debt.

 

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 flows. While we have entered into interest rate swap agreements limiting our exposure for a portion of our debt, the agreements do not offer complete protection from this risk.

 

Our debt agreements contain covenant restrictions that may limit our ability to operate our business.

 

The agreement governing our senior credit facility contains, and any of our other future debt agreements may contain, covenant restrictions that limit our ability to operate our business, including restrictions on our ability to:

 

 

Our ability to comply with these covenants is dependent on our future performance, which will be subject to many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including prevailing economic conditions. As a result of these covenants, our ability to respond to changes in business and economic conditions and to obtain additional financing, if needed, may be significantly restricted, and we may be prevented from engaging in transactions that might otherwise be beneficial to us. In addition, our failure to comply with these covenants could result in a default under our debt agreements, which could permit the holders to accelerate our obligation to repay the debt. If any of our debt is accelerated, we may not have sufficient funds available to repay the accelerated debt.

 

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

 

We reported net losses of $12.2 million, $30.1 million and $14.0 million for the fiscal years 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively. 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 and maintain profitability, we may be required to raise additional capital to maintain or grow our operations. The terms of any transaction to raise 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.

Speech technologies may not achieve widespread acceptance, 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 the 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:

 

 

Sales of our speech products would be harmed if the market for speech technologies does not continue to develop or develops slower 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 speech, we compete with AT&T, Microsoft, Google, and other smaller providers. Within healthcare dictation and transcription, we compete with Spheris, Medquist and other smaller providers. Within imaging, we compete directly with ABBYY, Adobe, I.R.I.S. and NewSoft. 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, Microsoft and Google, 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, Microsoft and Google, 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.

 

The SEC, as directed by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, adopted rules requiring public companies to include a report of management on internal control over financial reporting in their annual reports on Form 10-K that contains an assessment by management of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the

effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. 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 statements in an accurate and timely manner, could subject us to regulatory actions, civil or criminal penalties, shareholder litigation, or loss of customer confidence, which could result in an adverse reaction in the financial marketplace due to a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which ultimately could negatively impact our stock price.

 

A significant portion of our revenue is derived, and a significant portion of our research and development activities are based, outside the United States. Our results could be harmed by economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with these international regions.

 

Because we operate worldwide, our business is subject to risks associated with doing business internationally. We anticipate that revenue from international operations could increase in the future. 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 and we have a large number of employees in India that provide transcription services. A significant portion of the development and manufacturing of our speech products are conducted in Belgium and Canada, and a significant portion of our imaging research and development is conducted in Hungary. We also have significant research and development resources in Aachen, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. 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. 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. 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 and costs projected to increase, we are exposed to changes in foreign currencies including the Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Indian Rupee 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 that 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 benefits 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 on an annual basis, as well as whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Factors that 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.

 

Our sales to government clients subject us to risks, including early termination, audits, investigations, sanctions and penalties.

 

We derive a portion of our revenues from contracts with the United States government, as well as various state and local governments, and their respective agencies. Government contracts are generally subject to audits and investigations which could identify violations of these agreements. Government contract violations could result in a range of consequences including, but not limited to, contract price adjustments, civil and criminal penalties, contract termination, forfeiture of profit and/or suspension of payment, and suspension or debarment from future government contracts. We could also suffer serious harm to our reputation if we were found to have violated the terms of our government contracts.

 

We recently conducted an analysis of our compliance with the terms and conditions of certain contracts with the U.S. General Services Administration (“GSA”). Based upon our analysis, we voluntarily notified GSA of non-compliance with the terms of two contracts. The final resolution of this matter may adversely impact our financial position.

 

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

 

If any of our key employees were to leave, 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 in the past. We cannot assure you that one or more key employees will not leave in the future. We intend to continue to hire additional highly qualified personnel, including software engineers and operational personnel, but 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. 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 that could have a material adverse affect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

Adverse changes in general economic or political conditions in any of the major countries in which we do business could adversely affect our operating results.

 

As our business has grown, we have become increasingly subject to the risks arising from adverse changes in domestic and global economic and political conditions. For example, the direction and relative strength of the U.S. and global economies have recently been increasingly uncertain due to softness in housing markets, extreme volatility in security prices, severely diminished liquidity and credit availability rating downgrades of certain investments and declining valuations of others and continuing geopolitical uncertainties. If economic growth in the United States and other countries in which we do business is slowed, customers may delay or reduce technology purchases and may be unable to obtain credit to finance purchase of our products. This could result in reduced sales of our products, longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition. Any of these events would likely harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Political instability in any of the major countries in which we do business would also likely harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

Current uncertainty in the global financial markets and the global economy may negatively affect our financial results.

 

Current uncertainty in the global financial markets and economy may negatively affect our financial results. These macroeconomic developments could negatively affect our business, operating results or financial condition in a number of ways which, in turn, could adversely affect our stock price. A prolonged period of economic decline could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition and exacerbate some of the other risk factors described herein. Our customers may defer purchases of our products, licenses, and services in response to tighter credit and negative financial news or reduce their demand for them. Our customers may also not be able to obtain adequate access to credit, which could affect their ability to make timely payments to us or ultimately cause the customer to file for protection from creditors under applicable insolvency or bankruptcy laws. If our customers are not able to make timely payments to us, our accounts receivable could increase.

 

Our investment portfolio, which includes short-term debt securities, is generally subject to credit, liquidity, counterparty, market and interest rate risks that may be exacerbated by the recent global financial crisis. If the banking system or the fixed income, credit or equity markets deteriorate or remain volatile, our investment portfolio may be impacted and the values and liquidity of our investments could be adversely affected.

 

In addition, our operating results and financial condition could be negatively affected if, as a result of economic conditions, either:

 

 

 

Security and privacy breaches in our systems may damage client relations and inhibit our growth.

 

The uninterrupted operation of our hosted solutions and the confidentiality and security of third-party information is critical to our business. Any failures in our security and privacy measures could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations. If we are unable to protect, or our clients perceive that we are unable to protect, the security and privacy of our electronic information, our growth could be materially adversely affected. A security or privacy breach may:

 

 

While we believe we use proven applications designed for data security and integrity to process electronic transactions, there can be no assurance that our use of these applications will be sufficient to address changing market conditions or the security and privacy concerns of existing and potential clients.

 

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property and Technology

 

Unauthorized use of our proprietary technology and intellectual property could 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 our technologies 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.

We may incur substantial costs enforcing or acquiring intellectual property rights and defending against third-party claims as a result of litigation or other proceedings.

 

In connection with the enforcement of our own intellectual property rights, the acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights, or disputes relating to the validity or alleged infringement of third-party intellectual property rights, including patent rights, we have been, are currently, and may in the future be, subject to claims, negotiations or complex, protracted litigation. Intellectual property disputes and litigation are typically very costly and can be disruptive to our business operations by diverting the attention and energy of management and key technical personnel. Although we have successfully defended or resolved past litigation and disputes, we may not prevail in any ongoing or future litigation and disputes. In addition, we may incur significant costs in acquiring the necessary third party intellectual property rights for use in our products. Third party intellectual property disputes could subject us to significant liabilities, require us to enter into royalty and licensing arrangements on unfavorable terms, prevent us from manufacturing or licensing certain of our products, cause severe disruptions to our operations or the markets in which we compete, or require us to satisfy indemnification commitments with our customers including contractual provisions under various license arrangements. Any of these could seriously harm our business.

 

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 largest stockholder may enable them to influence matters requiring stockholder approval.

 

As of September 30, 2009, Warburg Pincus beneficially owned approximately 25% of our outstanding common stock, including warrants exercisable for up to 10,062,422 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. Because of their large holdings of our capital stock relative to other stockholders, this stockholder has 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, and this may make it difficult for you to resell the common stock when you want or at prices you find attractive.

 

Our stock price historically has been, and may continue to be, volatile. Various factors contribute to the volatility of the 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. Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock by our largest stockholders, or the perception that such sales could occur, could also contribute to the volatility or our stock price. 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.

 

Future sales of our common stock in the public market could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock and our ability to raise funds in new stock offerings.

 

Future sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect prevailing trading prices of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through future offerings of equity or equity-related securities. In connection with past acquisitions, we issued a substantial number of shares of our common stock as transaction consideration. We may continue to issue equity securities for future acquisitions, which would dilute existing stockholders, perhaps significantly depending on the terms of such acquisitions. For example, we issued, and registered for resale, approximately 4.0 million shares of our common stock in connection with our September 2009 acquisition of eCopy. No prediction can be made as to the effect, if any, that future sales of shares of common stock, or the availability of shares of common stock for future sale, will have on the trading price of our common stock.

 

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 201,000 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, 2009:

 

 

 

 

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, 2009, 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.

 

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 stock of Former Nuance,

which we acquired in September 2005, 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 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, the issuer defendants (including Former Nuance) and the issuers’ insurance carriers. The settlement called 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 settlement was not expected to have any material impact, as payments, if any, were expected to be made by insurance carriers, rather than by us. 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 plaintiffs petitioned the Second Circuit for rehearing of the Second Circuit’s decision, however, on April 6, 2007, the Second Circuit denied the petition for rehearing. At a status conference on April 23, 2007, the district court suggested that the issuers’ settlement could not be approved in its present form, given the Second Circuit’s ruling. On June 25, 2007 the district court issued an order terminating the settlement agreement. The plaintiffs in the case have since filed amended master allegations and amended complaints. On March 26, 2008, the Court largely denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss the amended complaints. On April 2, 2009, the plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary approval of a new proposed settlement between plaintiffs, the underwriter defendants, the issuer defendants and the insurers for the issuer defendants. Under the settlement, which remains subject to Court approval, the insurers would pay the full amount of the settlement attributable to Former Nuance, and Former Nuance would not bear any financial liability. The Court issued an order granting preliminary approval of the settlement, dated June 9, 2009, and a hearing on final approval of the settlement was held on September 10, 2009. On October 5, 2009, the court issued an opinion granting plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of the settlement, approval of the plan of distribution of the settlement fund and certification of the settlement classes. On October 20, 2009, a petition for permission to appeal the court’s October 5, 2009 certification of the settlement classes was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Due to the inherent uncertainties of litigation, we are unable to determine the ultimate outcome or potential range of loss, if any, associated with this matter.

 

We believe that the final outcome of the matter 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 this litigation matter, 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.

PART II

 

 

Market Information

 

Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “NUAN”. The following table sets forth, for our fiscal quarters indicated, the high and low sales prices of our common stock, in each case as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.

 

 

Holders

 

As of October 31, 2009, there were 1,168 stockholders of record of our common stock.

 

Dividend Policy

 

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common 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. Furthermore, the terms of our credit facility place restrictions on our ability to pay dividends, except for stock dividends.

 

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

 

We have not announced any currently effective authorization to repurchase shares of our common stock.

 

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 following Management’s Discussion and Analysis is intended to help the reader understand the results of operations and financial condition of our business. Management’s Discussion and Analysis 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 on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that, if they never materialize or if they prove incorrect, could cause our consolidated results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such 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 on Form 10-K.

 

You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.

 

Overview

 

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech, imaging and keypad solutions for businesses, organizations and consumers around the world. Our technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems, and how they create, share and use documents. Our solutions are used every day by millions of people and thousands of businesses for tasks and services such as requesting information from a phone-based self-service solution, dictating medical records, searching the mobile Web by voice, entering a destination into a navigation system, or working with PDF documents. Our solutions help make these interactions, tasks and experiences more productive, compelling and efficient.

 

Our technologies address our three core markets:

 

 

We leverage our global professional services organization and our network of partners to design and deploy innovative solutions for businesses and organizations around the globe. We market and distribute our products

through a global network of resellers, including system integrators, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, hardware vendors, telecommunications carriers and distributors, and also sell directly through a dedicated sales force and through our e-commerce website.

 

Confronted by dramatic increases in electronic information, consumers, business personnel and healthcare professionals must use a variety of resources to retrieve information, transcribe patient records, conduct transactions and perform other job-related functions. We believe that the power of our solutions can transform the way people use the Internet, telecommunications systems, electronic medical records, wireless and mobile networks and related corporate infrastructure to conduct business.

 

We have built a world-class portfolio of intellectual property, technologies, applications and solutions through both internal development and acquisitions. We expect to continue to pursue opportunities to broaden these assets and expand our customer base through acquisitions. In evaluating the financial condition and operating performance of our business, management focuses on revenue, earnings, gross margins, operating margins and cash flow from operations. A summary of these key financial metrics for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009, as compared to the fiscal year ended September 30, 2008, is as follows:

 

 

Strategy

 

In fiscal 2010, we will continue to focus on growth by providing market-leading, value-added solutions for our customers and partners through a broad set of technologies, service offerings and channel capabilities. We will also continue to focus on expense discipline and acquisition synergies to improve gross margins and operating margins. We intend to pursue growth through the following key elements of our strategy:

 

 

 

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

The following table presents, as a percentage of total revenue, certain selected financial data for fiscal 2009, 2008 and 2007.

 

Total Revenue

 

The following tables show total revenue from our three core market groups and revenue by geographic location, based on the location of our customers, in dollars and percentage change (dollars in millions):

 

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in total revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was driven by a combination of organic growth and contributions from acquisitions. Mobile-Enterprise revenue increased $23.5 million, primarily driven by contributions from our acquisition of SNAPin, as well as growth in our hosted, on-demand solutions. Healthcare-Dictation revenue increased $68.6 million, primarily driven by contributions from our acquisitions of eScription and PSRS, and organic growth of our iChart transcription solution. Imaging revenue decreased $10.2 million primarily due to a decline in Windows-based software sales and a general decline in corporate spending due to current economic conditions.

 

Based on the location of our customers, the geographic split for fiscal 2009 was 74% of total revenue in the United States and 26% internationally, as compared to 77% of total revenue in the United States and 23% internationally for the same period last year. The increase in the proportion of revenue generated internationally was primarily due to contributions from our acquisition of PSRS near the end of fiscal 2008.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in total revenue for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, was driven by a combination of organic growth and contributions from acquisitions. Mobile-Enterprise revenue increased $192.0 million, primarily driven by contributions from our acquisitions of BeVocal, Viecore, Tegic and VoiceSignal. Healthcare-Dictation revenue increased $68.5 million, primarily due to contributions from our acquisitions of Focus, Commissure, Vocada and eScription. Imaging revenue increased $6.0 million.

 

Based on the location of our customers, the geographic split for fiscal 2008 was 77% of total revenue in the United States and 23% internationally, as compared to 78% of total revenue in the United States and 22% internationally for the prior year. The slight decrease in proportion of revenue generated in the United States was primarily due to acquisitions that have a higher proportion of their revenue derived from customers outside of the United States.

 

Product and Licensing Revenue

 

Product and licensing revenue primarily consists of sales and licenses of our technology. The following table shows product and licensing revenue, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The decrease in product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, consisted of a $27.8 million decrease in Mobile-Enterprise revenue primarily due to customers migrating to our on-demand services solutions and an $11.3 million decrease in Imaging revenue primarily due to a decline in Windows-based software sales and a general decline in corporate spending due to current economic conditions. Healthcare-Dictation product and licensing revenue decreased slightly primarily due to decreased consumer spending in our non-medical sales of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, as well as, customers continued migration to our on-demand service solutions, this decrease was partially offset by the positive revenue impact of our acquisition of PSRS in September 2008. As a percentage of total revenue, product and licensing revenue decreased 8.4 percentage points primarily due to changes in revenue mix attributable to the accelerated growth in professional services and hosting revenue relative to product and licensing revenue.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, consisted of a $90.7 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise revenue primarily due to contributions from our acquisitions of VoiceSignal and Tegic, and a $5.5 million increase in Imaging revenue. Healthcare-Dictation revenue increased by $6.4 million, including contributions from the acquisition of Commissure, and the release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008, but partially offset by a decline in healthcare product and licensing revenue as customers migrated to our iChart hosted services solution. As a percentage of total revenue, product and licensing revenue decreased 4.1 percentage points primarily due to changes in revenue mix attributable to the accelerated growth in professional services and hosting revenue relative to product and licensing revenue.

 

Professional Services and Hosting Revenue

 

Professional services revenue primarily consists of consulting, implementation and training services for speech customers. Hosting revenue primarily relates to delivering hosted transcription and dictation services over a specified term, as well as self-service, on-demand offerings to carriers and enterprises. The following table shows professional services and hosting revenue, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in professional services and hosting revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, consisted of a $61.8 million increase in Healthcare-Dictation revenue, including contributions from our acquisition of

eScription and organic growth of our iChart transcription solution. Additionally, there was a $44.1 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise revenue, primarily due to contributions from our acquisition of SNAPin, and growth in our hosted, on-demand solutions. The growth in these organic and acquired revenue streams outpaced the relative growth of our other revenue types, resulting in an 8.1 percentage point increase in professional services and hosting revenue as a percentage of total revenue.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in professional services and hosting revenue for fiscal 2008, as compared fiscal 2007, consisted of an $88.3 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise revenue, including contributions from our acquisitions of BeVocal and Viecore. Additionally, there was a $51.8 million increase in Healthcare-Dictation revenue, primarily due to contributions from our acquisitions of Focus, Vocada and eScription, and to the growth of our iChart transcription solution. The growth in these organic and acquired revenue streams outpaced the relative growth of our other revenue types, resulting in a 7.7 percentage point increase in professional services and hosting revenue as a percentage of total revenue.

 

Maintenance and Support Revenue

 

Maintenance and support revenue primarily consists of technical support and maintenance services. The following table shows maintenance and support revenue, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in maintenance and support revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, consisted primarily of an $8.7 million increase related to the expansion of our current installed base of Healthcare-Dictation solutions, and a $7.2 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise maintenance and support revenue, driven by organic growth.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in maintenance and support revenue for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, consisted primarily of a $13.2 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise maintenance and support revenue, driven by a combination of organic growth and growth from our acquisition of Viecore, and a $10.4 million increase related to the expansion of our current installed base of Healthcare-Dictation solutions. As a percentage of total revenue, maintenance and support revenue decreased by 3.6 percentage points, primarily due to changes in revenue mix attributable to the accelerated growth in professional services and hosting revenue relative to maintenance and support revenue.

 

COSTS AND EXPENSES

 

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, in dollars and as a percentage of product and licensing revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The decrease in cost of product and licensing revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily due to a $4.7 million decrease in Healthcare-Dictation costs, a $2.7 million decrease in Imaging costs and a $1.0 million decrease in Mobile-Enterprise costs as a result of customer migration to hosted, on-demand solutions and declining Windows-based license revenues. The cost of product and licensing revenue decreased as a percentage of revenue due to a change in the revenue mix towards products with higher margins.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

Cost of product and licensing revenue increased $2.5 million for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, primarily due to increased royalty expense associated with our Imaging product and partially offset by reduced Healthcare-Dictation costs. Cost of product and licensing revenue decreased as a percentage of product and licensing revenue primarily due to increased product and licensing revenue related to recent acquisitions that do not carry significant related costs, and, to a lesser extent, to a change in the revenue mix towards products with higher margins.

 

Cost of Professional Services and Hosting Revenue

 

Cost of professional services 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, on-demand solutions. The following table shows cost of professional services and hosting revenue, in dollars and as a percentage of professional services and hosting revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in cost of professional services and hosting revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily due to a $36.2 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise costs driven by our acquisition of SNAPin and a $4.5 million increase in Healthcare-Dictation professional services and hosting costs driven by a full year impact of our acquisitions of eScription and PSRS in late fiscal 2008. As a percentage of revenue, cost of professional services and hosting revenue decreased due to faster growth in our higher margin hosted, on-demand solutions.

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in the cost of professional services and hosting revenue for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, was primarily driven by the Mobile-Enterprise acquisition of Viecore, the full year impact of the fiscal 2007 Healthcare-Dictation acquisition of Focus, as well as organic growth in the core business. The cost of professional services and hosting revenue increased modestly in fiscal 2008, as a percentage of the related revenue, as we increased spending to support our current and future growth, particularly in our hosted, on-demand solutions. These solutions require infrastructure spending in advance of the revenue.

 

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, in dollars and as a percentage of maintenance and support revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The decrease in cost of maintenance and support revenue for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily due to a $1.7 million decrease in Healthcare-Dictation costs as a result of effective cost containment actions, offset by an increase in costs associated with our acquisitions of eScription and PSRS. As a percentage of revenue, cost of maintenance and support revenue decreased due to effective cost controls in our core business and changes in the overall revenue mix.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in cost of maintenance and support revenue for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, was primarily due to a $2.2 million increase in Mobile-Enterprise related to the acquisition of Viecore and $1.1 million increase in Healthcare-Dictation related to the acquisitions of Vocada and Commissure. The cost of maintenance and support revenue as a percentage of the related revenue decreased by 0.8 percentage points.

 

Research and Development Expense

 

Research and development expense primarily consists of salaries, benefits and overhead relating to engineering staff. The following table shows research and development expense, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in research and development expense for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, primarily consisted of a $5.7 million increase in infrastructure investment to support ongoing research and development projects, as well as a $2.5 million increase in compensation expense attributable to the additional headcount from our acquisitions during the period. This increase is partially offset by a reduction of $3.0 million related to temporary employees and professional services. To date, we have not capitalized any internal software development

costs as costs incurred after technological feasibility, but before release of our licensed software products, and development work related to our on-demand solutions have not been significant.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in research and development expense for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, primarily consisted of a $28.9 million in compensation expense attributable to the additional headcount from our acquisitions during the period, and a $3.6 million increase in temporary employees and professional services to support ongoing research and development projects. The remaining increase is related to infrastructure investment.

 

Sales and Marketing Expense

 

Sales and marketing expense includes salaries and benefits, commissions, advertising, direct mail, public relations, tradeshow costs and other costs of marketing programs, travel expenses associated with our sales organization and overhead. The following table shows sales and marketing expense, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The decrease in sales and marketing expenses for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily attributable to a $4.9 million decrease in compensation and other variable costs, such as commissions and travel expenses, a $4.6 million decrease in marketing program spending and a $1.3 million decrease in temporary employees and professional services. Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total revenue decreased by 3.5 percentage points, as a result of increased cost efficiencies of our sales and marketing expenditures.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in sales and marketing expenses for fiscal 2008, as compared to fiscal 2007, was primarily attributable to a $39.9 million increase in compensation and other variable costs, such as commissions, stock-based compensation and travel expenses related to increased headcount from our acquisitions during the period, and a $5.0 million increase in marketing program spending. Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total revenue decreased by 4.1 percentage points, as a result of increased cost efficiencies of our sales and marketing expenditures and a reduction of the share-based compensation relative to the increase in revenue.

 

General and Administrative Expense

 

General and administrative expense primarily consists of personnel costs 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, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in general and administrative expense for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily attributable to increased legal costs of $11.4 million associated with acquisition and integration activities. This increase is partially offset by a reduction of $2.4 million in bad debt expense resulting from improved collection and a $2.6 million decrease in expenses related to temporary employees and professional services as a result of cost containment efforts and acquisition related synergies.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in general and administrative expense for fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was primarily attributable to increased compensation and stock-based compensation of $20.9 million associated with our 2008 acquisitions. An additional $5.1 million increase in general and administrative expenses related to temporary employees and professional services in order to support the incremental requirements resulting from our growth from acquisitions, and $3.6 million related to increased third-party legal fees.

 

Amortization of Intangible Assets

 

Amortization of acquired patents and core and completed technology are included in cost of revenue and the amortization of acquired customer and contractual relationships, non-compete agreements, acquired tradenames and trademarks, and other intangibles are included in operating expenses. Customer relationships are amortized on an accelerated basis based upon the pattern in which the economic benefit of customer relationships are being realized. Other identifiable intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Amortization expense was recorded as follows (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The increase in amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2009, compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily attributable to the amortization of acquired customer relationship and core technology intangible assets from our acquisitions of eScription in May 2008, PSRS in September 2008, SNAPin in October 2008, and our acquisitions during the third quarter of fiscal 2009. Fiscal 2009 amortization expense also increased over fiscal 2008 due to our acquisition and licensing of certain technology from other third-parties during 2009.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2008, compared to fiscal 2007, was primarily attributable to the amortization of acquired customer relationships and core technology from our acquisitions in fiscal 2008 and 2007, as well as new technology licensed in fiscal 2008. The amortization expense in fiscal 2008 included $3.6 million representing impairment charges recorded from our review of our ability to realize future cash flows relating to certain of our intangible assets. We did not record any impairment charges in fiscal 2007.

 

Based on our balance of amortizable intangible assets as of September 30, 2009, and assuming no impairment or reduction in expected lives, we expect amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2010 to be $126.2 million

In-Process Research and Development

 

In fiscal 2008, we recorded in-process research and development charges of $2.6 million in connection with our acquisition of PSRS. We did not have any in-process research and development charges for any other acquisitions completed in fiscal 2009, 2008 or 2007. The value assigned to in-process research and development was determined using an income approach by estimating the costs to develop the acquired technologies into commercially viable products, estimating the resulting net cash flows from the projects and discounting the net cash flows to their present values. At the date of acquisition, the development of these projects had not yet reached technological feasibility, and the research and development in progress had no alternative future uses. The rates utilized to discount the net cash flows to their present value were based on a number of factors, including our estimated costs of capital. Due to the nature of the forecasts and the risks associated with the projected growth and profitability of these projects, discount rates of 25% to 35% were considered appropriate.

 

Restructuring and Other Charges (Credits), Net

 

For fiscal 2009, we recorded restructuring and other charges of $5.4 million, composed primarily of $5.3 million related to the elimination of approximately 220 personnel across multiple functions within our company.

 

For fiscal 2008, we recorded restructuring and other charges of $7.0 million, of which $4.2 million related to the elimination of approximately 155 personnel across multiple functions, $1.4 million related to a non-recurring, adverse ruling arising from a vendor’s claims of underpayment of historical royalties for technology discontinued in 2005 and $1.4 million related to the consolidation or elimination of excess facilities.

 

The following table sets forth the activity relating to the restructuring accruals in fiscal 2009, 2008 and 2007 (in millions):

 

Other Income (Expense), Net

 

The following table shows other income (expense), net in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

The change in other income (expense), net for fiscal 2009, as compared to fiscal 2008, was primarily driven by gains on foreign currency forward contracts. During the three months ended December 31, 2008, we entered into foreign currency forward contracts to manage exposure on our Euro-denominated deferred acquisition payment obligation of €44.3 million related to our acquisition of PSRS. The deferred acquisition payment was paid on October 22, 2009. These foreign currency contracts were not designated as hedges and changes in fair value of these contracts were reported in net earnings as other income (expense). For fiscal 2009, we recorded a net $8.0 million gain as other income related to these contracts and the related Euro-denominated obligation. In addition, gains on other derivative instruments of $2.3 million were partially offset by a $1.2 million impairment charge taken on our cost method investment in a non-public company during the period. Interest income was lower in fiscal 2009 due to lower prevailing market interest rates. Interest expense was similarly lower during fiscal 2009 driven by a decrease in the prevailing average interest rates during the year related to our variable-interest rate borrowings.

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in interest income for fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was primarily due to higher cash balances, partially offset by lower interest rates during fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007. The increase in interest expense was mainly due to the increase in our term loan borrowings and the $250.0 million convertible debentures that we issued in August 2007. Included in interest expense was $5.2 million in fiscal 2008 and $4.2 million in fiscal 2007 of non-cash interest expense mainly related to imputed interest in association with certain lease obligations included in our accrued business combination costs and accrued restructuring charges, and the amortization of debt issuance costs and unamortized discount associated with our debt. Other income (expense), net principally consisted of foreign exchange gains (losses) as a result of the changes in foreign exchange rates on certain of our foreign subsidiaries who have transactions denominated in currencies other than their functional currencies, as well as the remeasurement of certain of our intercompany balances.

 

Provision for Income Taxes

 

The following table shows the provision for income taxes and the effective income tax rate (in thousands of dollars, except percentages):

 

Fiscal 2009 Compared to Fiscal 2008

 

Our effective income tax rate was 143.3% and (93.8)% for fiscal 2009 and 2008, respectively. The increase in the rate was due primarily to the increase in our valuation allowance with respect to certain deferred tax assets. This was partially offset by an $8.0 million charge recorded in the first quarter of fiscal 2009 upon our election to treat the eScription acquisition as an asset purchase. This charge in fiscal 2009 represented the reversal of tax benefits associated with a Massachusetts state tax law enactment recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 when the eScription acquisition was treated as a stock purchase

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The effective income tax rate was (93.8)% and 265.1% for fiscal 2008 and 2007, respectively. The decrease in the effective tax rate was due primarily to the $20.4 million tax benefit associated with the enactment of the Massachusetts state tax law enactment, which impacted the tax rate applied to certain deferred tax liabilities associated with intangible assets and results in these liabilities being taxed at a lower effective tax rate when reversed in future periods. This benefit was partially offset by changes in the valuation allowance with respect to certain deferred tax assets.

 

Our utilization of deferred tax assets that were acquired in a business combination (primarily net operating loss carryforwards) will reduce goodwill, intangible assets, and to the extent remaining, the provision for income taxes, until our adoption of the business combination accounting guidance in ASC 805 on October 1, 2009; after which time the reductions in the allowance, if any, will be recorded as a tax benefit in the statement of operations. Our establishment of new deferred tax assets as a result of operating activities requires the establishment of valuation allowances based upon “more likely than not” realization criteria. The establishment of a valuation allowance relating to operating activities is recorded as an increase to tax expense.

 

Our tax provision also includes state and foreign tax expense, which is determined on either a legal entity or separate tax jurisdiction basis.

 

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

 

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $527.0 million as of September 30, 2009, an increase of $265.5 million as compared to $261.5 million as of September 30, 2008. Our working capital was $376.6 million as of September 30, 2009 as compared to $133.5 million as September 30, 2008. As of September 30, 2009, our total accumulated deficit was $247.3 million. We do not expect our accumulated deficit to impact our future ability to operate the business given our strong cash and operating cash flow positions, and believe our current cash and cash equivalents on-hand are sufficient to meet our operating needs for at least the next twelve months.

 

Cash provided by operating activities

 

Fiscal 2009 compared to Fiscal 2008

 

Cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2009 was $258.7 million, an increase of $62.5 million, or 32%, as compared to cash provided by operating activities of $196.2 million for fiscal 2008. The increase was primarily driven by the following factors:

 

 

 

Fiscal 2008 compared to Fiscal 2007

 

Cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2008 was $196.2 million, an increase of $89.8 million, or 84%, as compared to cash provided by operating activities of $106.4 million for fiscal 2007. The net increase was primarily driven by the following factors:

 

 

Cash used in investing activities

 

Fiscal 2009 compared to Fiscal 2008

 

Cash used in investing activities for fiscal 2009 was $184.6 million, a decrease of $261.5 million, or 59%, as compared to cash used in investing activities of $446.1 million for fiscal 2008. The net decrease was primarily driven by the following factors:

 

 

Fiscal 2008 compared to Fiscal 2007

 

Cash used in investing activities for fiscal 2008 was $446.1 million, a decrease of $131.6 million, or 23%, as compared to cash used in investing activities of $577.7 million for fiscal 2007. The decrease was primarily driven by the following factors:

 

 

Cash provided by financing activities

 

Fiscal 2009 compared to Fiscal 2008

 

Cash provided by financing activities for fiscal 2009 was $189.4 million, a decrease of $137.7 million, or 42%, as compared to cash provided by financing activities of $327.1 million for fiscal 2008. The change was primarily driven by the following factors: