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(g) OF THE ACT:
None

 

SECURITIES REGISTERED PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OF THE ACT:
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  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 $2,883,498,885 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, 2008, was 240,514,913.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Portions of the Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement to be delivered to stockholders in connection with the Registrant’s 2009 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

 

 

NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the 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 2009 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 information 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 account information from a phone-based self-service solution, dictating 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 deliver solutions that address five core markets:

 

 

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 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. Our recently completed, significant transactions include:

 

 

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.

 

Solutions to our core markets include:

 

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. Our acquisition of Viecore expanded our professional services capabilities and complements our existing partnerships, allowing us to deliver end-to-end speech solutions and system integration for speech-enabled customer care.

 

We license our solutions to 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. We often work closely with industry partners, including Avaya, Cisco, Genesys and Nortel, that integrate our solutions into their hardware and software platforms.

 

Mobile Solutions — Today, an increasing number of people worldwide rely on mobile devices to stay connected, informed and productive. We see an opportunity in helping consumers use the powerful capabilities of their phones, cars and personal navigation devices by using voice commands and keypad solutions to control these devices and to access the array of content and services available on the Internet through wireless mobile devices. We expect to serve more than one billion consumers in the next three years with solutions that allow them to simply and effectively retrieve and communicate information on these mobile devices.

Our portfolio of mobile solutions and services includes an integrated suite of voice solutions for mobile devices, predictive text technologies, mobile messaging services and emerging services such as voicemail-to-text. Our solutions are used by mobile phone, automotive, personal navigation device and other consumer electronic manufacturers and their suppliers, including Ford, LG Electronics, 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 acquisition of SNAPin enhances our ability to deliver innovative, highly scalable mobile customer care solutions that improve the way mobile operators and enterprises interact with consumers in real-time on mobile devices.

 

Healthcare Solutions — The healthcare industry is under significant pressure to streamline operations and 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 for larger organizations provide platforms to generate and distribute clinical documentation through the use of advanced dictation and transcription features. Our acquisition of eScription allows 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 acquisition of Philips Speech Recognition Systems significantly enhances our ability to deliver innovative, speech-driven clinical documentation and communication solutions to healthcare organization throughout Europe.

 

Dragon NaturallySpeaking — 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 speech recognition and dictation products. Our Dragon Medical solution is a desktop application that provides front-end speech recognition used by physicians and clinicians to create and navigate medical records.

 

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 work quickly with scanned paper documents, PDF files and digital documents and software development toolkits for independent software vendors. We utilize a combination of our global reseller network and direct sales to distribute our document conversion and PDF products. We license our software to companies such as Brother, Canon, Dell, HP and Xerox, which bundle our solutions with multifunction devices, digital copiers, printers and scanners.

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 markets where we compete. 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 more than 650 issued patents and 680 patent applications. Our intellectual property, whether purchased or developed internally, is critical to our success and competitive position and, ultimately, to our market value. Our products and services build 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.

 

International Operations

 

We have principal offices in a number of international locations including: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Australia, 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 2008, 2007 and 2006, 77%, 78% and 74% of revenue was generated in the United States and 23%, 22% and 26% 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, IBM, 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 in our markets, such as Adobe, IBM, 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, 2008, we had approximately 6,100 full time employees in total, including approximately 650 in sales and marketing, approximately 1,000 in professional services, approximately 800 in research and development, approximately 400 in general and administrative and approximately 3,250 that provide healthcare transcription and editing services. Approximately fifty-five percent of our employees are based outside of the United States, the majority of who provide healthcare 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

 

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. 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, including our acquisitions of Dictaphone, Focus, BeVocal, VoiceSignal, Tegic, Viecore, eScription and SNAPin. 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 our pending and 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 the amount of direct transaction costs as the cost of acquiring the company or business. We have allocated that cost to the individual assets acquired and liabilities assumed, including various identifiable intangible assets such as acquired technology, acquired trade names and acquired customer relationships based on their respective fair values and also to in-process research and development. 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, 2008, we had identified intangible assets amounting to approximately $585.0 million and goodwill of approximately $1.7 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.

 

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, 2008, we had a total of $907.0 million of gross debt outstanding, including $657.0 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, 2008, there were $16.6 million of letters of credit issued under the revolving credit line and there were no other outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit line. On October 8, 2008, we drew $55.0 million against our existing 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 an interest rate swap agreement limiting our exposure for a portion of our debt, the agreement does 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 approximately $30.1 million, $14.0 million and $22.9 million for fiscal years 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. We had an accumulated deficit of approximately $235.1 million at September 30, 2008. If we are unable to achieve and maintain profitability, the market price for our stock may decline, perhaps substantially. We cannot assure you that our revenue will grow or that we will achieve or maintain profitability in the future. If we do not achieve profitability, we may be required to raise additional capital to maintain or grow our operations. The terms of any 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 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 more slowly than we expect, and, consequently, our business could be harmed and we may not recover the costs associated with our investment in our speech technologies.

 

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

 

There are a number of companies that develop or may develop products that compete in our targeted markets. The individual markets in which we compete are highly competitive, and are rapidly changing. Within speech, we compete with AT&T, IBM, 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, eCopy, 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, IBM, 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 contain an assessment by management of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of the 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 and a significant portion of our research and development 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 will increase in the future. Reported international revenue, classified by the major geographic areas in which our customers are located, represented approximately $199.2 million, $130.4 million and $100.2 million, representing 23%, 22% and 26% of our total revenue, for fiscal 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. Most of our international revenue is generated by sales in Europe and Asia. In addition, some of our products are developed and manufactured outside the United States 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 completed in Belgium, 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, Montreal, Canada 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, Israeli New Shekel, 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. As of September 30, 2008, we had identified intangible assets amounting to approximately $585.0 million and goodwill of approximately $1.7 billion.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

We derive revenue from contracts with the United States government, as well as various state and local governments, and their respective agencies. Our sales to government agencies have increased as a result of our acquisitions of Viecore and Dictaphone. 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 contracts entered into by Dictaphone Corporation, which we acquired in March 2006. 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 to the Company. 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 economics 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.

 

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 of third-party information that resides on our systems is critical to our business. We have what we believe to be sufficient security around our systems to prevent unauthorized access. 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 positions 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 two largest stockholders may enable them to influence matters requiring stockholder approval.

 

On March 19, 2004,Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm agreed to purchase all outstanding shares of our stock held by Xerox Corporation for approximately $80.0 million. On May 9, 2005 and September 15, 2005, we sold shares of common stock, and warrants to purchase common stock to Warburg Pincus for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $75.1 million. Additionally, on May 20, 2008, Warburg Pincus purchased 5,760,369 shares of our common stock and warrants to purchase 3,700,000 shares of our common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $100.5 million. As of September 30, 2008, Warburg Pincus beneficially owned approximately 21% of our outstanding common stock, including warrants exercisable for up to 10,766,538 shares of our common stock and 3,562,238 shares of our outstanding Series B Preferred Stock, each of which is convertible into one share of our common stock. As of September 30, 2008, Fidelity was our second largest stockholder, owning approximately 8% of our common stock. Because of their large holdings of our capital stock relative to other stockholders, each of these two stockholders acting individually, or together, have a strong influence over matters requiring approval by our stockholders.

 

The market price of our common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations, 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 two 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 10.6 million shares of our common stock in connection with our recently completed acquisition of SNAPin. 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, 2008:

 

 

 

 

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, 2008, 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 Former Nuance stock

between April 12, 2000 and December 6, 2000. Those complaints have been consolidated into one action. The complaint generally alleges that various investment bank underwriters engaged in improper and undisclosed activities related to the allocation of shares in Former Nuance’s initial public offering of securities. The complaint makes claims for violation of several provisions of the federal securities laws against those underwriters, and also against Former Nuance and some of Former Nuance’s directors and officers. Similar lawsuits, concerning more than 250 other companies’ initial public offerings, were filed in 2001. In February 2003, the Court denied a motion to dismiss with respect to the claims against Former Nuance. In the third quarter of 2003, a proposed settlement in principle was reached among the plaintiffs, issuer defendants (including Former Nuance) and the issuers’ insurance carriers. The settlement 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 upon the Company, as payments, if any, were expected to be made by insurance carriers, rather than by the Company. 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 the 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 and have moved for class certification, while the defendants have moved to dismiss the complaints and have filed oppositions to the motion for class certification. We intend to defend the litigation vigorously and believe we have meritorious defenses to the claims against Former Nuance.

 

We believe that the final outcome of the current litigation 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.

 

 

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, 2008, there were 1,004 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. 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.

 

On October 23, 2004, our Board of Directors approved a change in the Company’s fiscal year end from December 31 to September 30, effective beginning September 30, 2004. All references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to fiscal 2004 refer to the nine month period ended September 30, 2004. References to fiscal 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, refer to the twelve month periods ended September 30.

 

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 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 information 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 account information from a phone-based self-service solution, dictating 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 have four groups which address our core markets including: Enterprise (formerly referred to as Network), Mobile (formerly referred to as Embedded), Healthcare and Dictation, and Imaging.

 

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 speech solutions both through internal development and acquisitions. We continue to pursue opportunities to broaden our speech solutions and expect to continue to make acquisitions of other companies, businesses and technologies to complement our internal investments. We have a team that focuses on evaluating market needs and potential acquisitions to fulfill them. In addition, we have a disciplined

methodology for integrating acquired companies and businesses after the transaction is complete. Acquisitions completed or announced since fiscal 2006 include the following significant transactions:

 

 

These acquisitions have had a material impact on our results of operations. Our results of operations for fiscal 2008 included partial year results from our acquisitions of Vocada, Viecore, eScription and PSRS. Our results of operations for fiscal 2007 included the operations of Dictaphone for a full year and partial year results from our acquisitions of Focus, BeVocal, VoiceSignal, Tegic and Commissure. Our results of operations during fiscal 2006 included the operations of Dictaphone for six months.

Strategy

 

In fiscal 2009, 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 the years ended September 30, 2008, 2007 and 2006.

 

 

Total Revenue

 

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

 

The following table presents revenue information for our core markets, in dollars and percentage change (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in total revenue in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was driven by a combination of organic growth and contributions from acquisitions. Enterprise revenue increased $90.3 million, including contributions from our acquisitions of BeVocal and Viecore; healthcare and dictation revenue increased $68.5 million, including contributions from our acquisitions of Focus, Commissure, Vocada and eScription; mobile revenue increased $101.7 million, including contributions from our acquisitions of VoiceSignal and Tegic, and imaging revenue increased $6.0 million.

 

Based on the location of the customers, the geographic split in fiscal 2008 was 77% of total revenue in the United States and 23% internationally compared to 78% of total revenue in the United States and 22% internationally in fiscal 2007. 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.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

The increase in total revenue in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 was driven by a combination of organic growth and contributions from acquisitions. Enterprise revenue increased $50.2 million, including contributions from our acquisition of BeVocal; healthcare and dictation revenue increased $144.6 million, including contributions from our acquisitions of Dictaphone and Focus; mobile revenue increased $17.2 million, including contributions from our acquisitions of VoiceSignal and Tegic, and imaging revenue increased $1.5 million.

 

Based on the location of the customers, the geographic split in fiscal 2007 was 78% of total revenue in the United States and 22% internationally compared to 74% of total revenue in the United States and 26% internationally in fiscal 2006. The increase in proportion of revenue generated in the United States was primarily due to our acquisitions which have a higher proportion of their revenue derived from customers in 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 absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 consisted of a $98.6 million increase in mobile revenue, including contributions from our acquisitions of VoiceSignal and Tegic,

and a $5.6 million increase in imaging revenue. Healthcare and dictation revenue increased by $6.3M, including contributions from the acquisition of Commissure, and the release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008, but somewhat offset by a decline in healthcare product revenue as customers migrate to our iChart hosted services solution. Enterprise revenue also saw a decline as customers migrate to our on-demand services solutions. 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, subscription and hosting revenue relative to product and licensing revenue.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Product and licensing revenue in fiscal 2007 increased $76.0 million compared to fiscal 2006 due to our 2007 acquisitions and to organic revenue growth. Enterprise revenue increased $10.2 million; healthcare and dictation revenue increased $48.8 million, including contributions from our acquisition of Dictaphone; mobile revenue increased $16.0 million, including contributions from our acquisitions of Tegic and VoiceSignal, and imaging revenue increased $1.0 million. Due to a change in revenue mix, primarily relating to the accelerated growth of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue, product and licensing revenue decreased by 8.9 percentage points of total revenue compared to fiscal 2006.

 

Professional Services, Subscription and Hosting Revenue

 

Professional services revenue primarily consists of consulting, implementation and training services for speech customers. Subscription and hosting revenue primarily relates to delivering hosted and 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, subscription and hosting revenue, in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in professional services, subscription and hosting revenue in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 consisted primarily of an $87.9 million increase in enterprise revenue including contributions from our acquisitions of BeVocal and Viecore and a $51.8 million increase in healthcare and dictation revenue including 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, subscription and hosting revenue, as a percentage of total revenue.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Professional services, subscription and hosting revenue increased by $84.2 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 due to revenue from our 2007 acquisitions as well as from our organic revenue growth. The growth is due primarily to $32.0 million in enterprise revenue driven by increased demand for our core enterprise consulting and transactional directory assistance services, and a 34% growth in our Dictaphone iChart solution. Additionally, our healthcare professional services, largely based on our acquisition of Dictaphone in March 2006, provided revenue growth of 45% in the second half of fiscal 2007 relative to the second half of fiscal 2006. As a percentage of total revenue, professional services, subscription and hosting revenue increased 6.6 percentage points due to accelerated organic and acquisition-related growth.

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 absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in maintenance and support revenue in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 consisted primarily of a $10.4 million increase from the expansion of the current installed base in our healthcare and dictation solutions, an additional $10.4 million increase associated with enterprise revenue driven by a combination of organic growth and growth from our acquisition of Viecore. Maintenance and support revenue related to mobile products also increased by $2.8 million as compared to fiscal 2007. 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, subscription and hosting revenue relative to maintenance and support revenue.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

The $53.2 million increase in maintenance and support revenue in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 consisted primarily of an increase in organic revenue, as well as acquisition related maintenance and support revenue from our 2007 acquisitions which have a significant customer base of maintenance and support contracts. Enterprise revenue increased $8.0 million; healthcare and dictation revenue increased $45.3 million, including contributions from our acquisition of Dictaphone. As a percentage of total revenue, maintenance and support revenue grew 2.3 percentage points in fiscal 2007 due primarily due to our 2007 acquisitions.

 

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

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

Cost of product and licensing revenue was relatively constant in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 as lower hardware and software costs related to our healthcare products were offset by increased royalty expense associated with our PDF product. Cost of product and licensing revenue decreased as a percentage of product revenue primarily due to increased product and licensing revenue related to recent acquisitions that do not carry significant product cost, and, to a lesser extent, to a change in the revenue mix towards products with higher margins.

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Cost of product and licensing revenue increased $13.5 million for fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 due in large part to our 2007 acquisitions and increased royalties and fulfillment of certain productivity products. As a percentage of product revenue, costs increased due to the higher third-party hardware and royalties associated with products acquired through our 2007 acquisitions.

 

Cost of Professional Services, Subscription and Hosting Revenue

 

Cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue primarily consists of compensation for consulting personnel, outside consultants and overhead, as well as the hardware and communications fees that support our subscription and hosted solutions. The following table shows cost of revenue, in dollars and as a percentage of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 is due to contributions from our acquisitions as well as organic growth of our core business. The cost of professional services, subscription 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 applications. These applications require infrastructure spending in advance of the revenue, and include solutions acquired in fiscal 2007 and 2008 such as BeVocal, Commissure, Vocada and eScription, and also include our iChart solution.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

The increase in cost of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 is due to growth in our organic business and from our acquisitions. As a percentage of professional services, subscription and hosting revenue, the related costs decreased by 8.2 percentage points due primarily to our ability to increase the utilization of existing for our professional services resources, and from a change in relative mix towards incremental hosted revenue which provides a generally higher margin than do our professional services 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 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in cost of maintenance and support revenue in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was attributable to both the growth in maintenance and support revenue from our acquisitions consummated in fiscal 2008 and 2007, and organic growth of our maintenance and support revenue. The cost of maintenance and support revenue as a percentage of the related revenue decreased by 0.8 percentage points.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

The increase in cost of maintenance and support revenue in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 was attributable to both the growth in maintenance and support revenue from our acquisitions consummated in fiscal 2007 and 2006, and to the growth in our organic maintenance and support revenue. The cost of maintenance and support revenue as a percentage of revenue stayed relatively flat at 22%, as maintenance and support revenue and associated costs grew approximately 76% from fiscal 2006.

 

Cost of Revenue from Amortization of Intangible Assets

 

Cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets consists of the amortization of acquired patents and core and completed technology using the straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. The cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets also includes impairment charges when we determine that such charges are necessary. We evaluate these assets for impairment and for appropriateness of their remaining life on an ongoing basis. The following table shows cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was primarily attributable to the amortization of intangible assets acquired in connection with our acquisitions closed in fiscal 2008 and 2007, as well as new technology licensed in fiscal 2008. The amortization expense in fiscal 2008 also included $2.7 million, which represents a portion of a settlement and license agreement that we entered into with a vendor in fiscal 2008.

 

Based on the amortizable intangible assets as of September 30, 2008, and assuming no impairment or reduction in expected lives, we expect cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2009 to be $26.3 million.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets increased $0.2 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006. The increase was primarily attributable to $3.1 million in amortization of intangible assets related to our 2007 acquisitions offset by a fiscal 2006 non-recurring charge of $2.6 million to write down technology licensed from a third party to its net realizable value. As a percentage of revenue, cost of revenue from amortization of intangible assets declined, largely because of a non-recurring charge in fiscal 2006, as well as the effect of amortization expense over a larger revenue base.

Research and Development Expense

 

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

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in research and development expense in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 primarily consisted of an increase of $21.7 million in compensation expense due to increased headcount associated with our fiscal 2008 acquisitions and a full year of operations for our 2007 acquisitions, and a $3.6 million increase in contract labor and professional services to support ongoing research and development projects. To date, we have not capitalized any internal development costs as the cost incurred after technological feasibility but before release of products has not been significant. $7.2 million of the increase is attributable to increased share-based payments, and the remaining increase is related to other expenses related to travel, infrastructure costs, including depreciation of incremental fixed assets.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Research and development expense increased $20.6 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 due to an increase of $8.6 million in compensation expense due to increased headcount largely associated with our 2007 acquisitions, an additional $6.9 million for contract labor and professional services to support ongoing research and development projects and an additional $2.6 million of increased shared-based payment expense. The remaining increase relates to additional employee-related travel, entertainment and infrastructure expenses. While increasing in dollars, research and development expense decreased as a proportion of total revenue reflecting achievement of synergies following acquisitions and on-going efforts to increase productivity.

 

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 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in sales and marketing expenses in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was primarily due to $35.4 million increase in compensation and other variable costs, such as commissions and travel expenses related to increased headcount from our fiscal 2008 acquisitions and a full year of operations for our fiscal 2007 acquisitions, and a $4.5 million increase related to marketing programs and channel program expenses. Additionally, $4.1 million of the increase was related to increased share-based payments. Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total

revenue decreased by 4.1 percentage points, as a result of increased efficiency of our sales teams, cost efficiencies of our marketing expenditures and a reduction of the share-based compensation relative to the increase in revenue.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Sales and marketing expense increased $56.5 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 due to an increase of $35.0 million in salaries and other variable costs, such as commissions and travel expenses relating to increased headcount from our 2007 acquisitions and to support the organic business, an increase of $13.0 million relating to share-based compensation, and an increase of $4.2 million relating to marketing programs and channel program expenses. The remaining increase in expenses relates to professional services, recruiting and other expenses associated with the support of the sales and marketing organization. While the expenses increased in absolute dollars, sales and marketing expenses decreased as a percentage of total revenue due to synergies achieved from acquisitions and increased productivity of sales organization.

 

General and Administrative Expense

 

General and administrative expense primarily consists of personnel costs, including overhead, for administration, finance, human resources, information systems, facilities and general management, fees for external professional advisors including accountants and attorneys, insurance, and provisions for doubtful accounts. The following table shows general and administrative expense, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in general and administrative expense for fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was primarily due to increased compensation of $16.0 million associated with our 2008 acquisitions. An additional $8.7 million increase in expenses related to temporary employees and professional services in order to support the incremental requirements that exist due to our growth from acquisitions, and $4.7 million of the increase was related to increased share-based payments.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

General and administrative expense increased $20.3 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 due to increased compensation associated with our 2007 acquisitions, an increase of $8.4 million relating to share-based compensation, and a $4.0 million increase in expenses relating to temporary employees and professional services to support our growing organization. While the expense increased in absolute dollars, general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue decreased as we achieved higher sales volumes while improving control of our cost structure.

 

Amortization of Intangible Assets

 

Amortization of intangible assets into operating expense includes amortization of acquired customer and contractual relationships, non-competition agreements and acquired trade names and trademarks. Customer relationships are amortized on an accelerated basis based upon the pattern in which their economic benefits are being utilized. Other identifiable intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. The amortization of intangible assets also includes impairment charges when we determine that such charges are necessary. We evaluate these assets for impairment and for appropriateness of their remaining life on an

ongoing basis. The following table shows amortization of intangible assets, in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue (dollars in millions):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in amortization of intangible assets in fiscal 2008 compared to fiscal 2007 was primarily attributable to the amortization of identifiable intangible assets acquired in connection with our acquisitions closed in fiscal 2008 and 2007. Also included in the amortization expense in fiscal 2008 is $3.6 million relating to impairment charges recorded from our review of our ability to realize future cash flows relating to certain of the intangible assets; we did not record any impairment charges in fiscal 2007.

 

Based on the amortizable intangible assets as of September 30, 2008, and assuming no impairment or reduction in expected lives, we expect amortization of intangible assets for fiscal 2009 to be $73.0 million.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Amortization of intangible assets increased $7.4 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006. The increase was primarily attributable to $10.6 million in amortization of intangible assets related to our 2007 and 2006 acquisitions.

 

In-Process Research and Development

 

In fiscal 2008, we recorded in-process research and development 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 2008, 2007 or 2006. 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. We anticipate costs to complete the development of these projects will be approximately $4.4 million, and will be completed between April 2009 and December 2009.

 

Restructuring and Other Charges (Credits), Net

 

In fiscal 2008, we recorded restructuring and other charges of $7.2 million, of which $7.0 million was recorded to new restructuring activities in fiscal 2008, and $0.2 million relates to pre-existing facilities that are included in accrued business combination costs which are discussed in Note 13 in the accompanying notes to our consolidated financial statements. With respect to the $7.0 million of fiscal 2008 restructuring activities, $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.

 

During the second quarter of fiscal 2006, we recorded a $1.3 million reduction to existing restructuring reserves as a result of the execution of a favorable sublease agreement relating to one of the facilities included in our 2005 restructuring plan. The amount was partially offset by other net adjustments of $0.1 million associated with prior years’ restructuring programs.

The following table sets forth the activity relating to the restructuring accruals in fiscal 2008, 2007 and 2006 (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 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007

 

The increase in interest income in 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, 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.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006

 

Interest income increased $2.7 million in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 primarily due to higher cash and investment balances during fiscal 2007 as well as higher interest rates. Interest expense increased $18.9 million during fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006 primarily due to (i) interest related to the credit facility we entered into on March 31, 2006 having been outstanding for a full 12 months; (ii) the April 2007 and August 2007 amendments to that facility that added $90.0 million and $225.0 million of debt, respectively; and (iii) the $250.0 million convertible debentures that we issued in August 2007. Additionally, we recorded $4.6 million 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, the amortization of debt issuance costs associated with the credit facility we entered into on March 31, 2006 as well as to the accretion of the interest related to the note payable from our Phonetic acquisition in February 2005. Other income (expense) 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, in dollars and the effective income tax rate (in thousands, except percentages):

 

 

Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007 and Fiscal 2006

 

The variance from the federal statutory rate in all periods was due primarily to the increase in our valuation allowance with respect to certain deferred tax assets. During fiscal 2008, the increase in the valuation allowance was largely offset by a fourth quarter benefit of the enactment of a Massachusetts state tax law. The change in law effects certain deferred tax liabilities associated with intangible assets and results in these liabilities being taxed at a lower effective tax rate. As a result, a tax benefit in the amount of $20.4 million was recorded. This benefit includes an $8.0 million tax benefit related to the eScription acquisition which is currently treated as a stock purchase. We can elect, if we pay approximately $21.5 million in additional purchase price, to treat this acquisition as an asset purchase. In the event we elect to treat this as an asset purchase, we will be required to reverse the $8.0 million benefit as a tax provision during the quarter in which the asset election is made. The election is required to be made no later than February 15, 2009.

 

In addition to the above effect of the state tax law, it is anticipated that regulations will be issued which will impact our ability to use certain state net operating losses. Because the regulations have not been issued, we are unable to calculate the effect of these regulations. The regulations are expected to be issued during the first calendar quarter of 2009. The tax provision expense to be recorded by us when regulations are issued could be up to approximately $2.0 million.

 

Our utilization of deferred tax assets that were acquired in a business combination (primarily net operating loss carryforwards) will require the reversal of the deferred tax asset in accordance with the manner in which the deferred tax asset was originally recorded and will vary based upon the business combination whose deferred tax assets are being utilized. Our establishment of new deferred tax assets as a result of operating activities requires the establishment of valuation allowances based upon the SFAS 109 “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 $261.5 million as of September 30, 2008, an increase of $77.2 million compared to $184.3 million as of September 30, 2007. As of September 30, 2008, total retained deficit was $235.1 million. We do not expect our retained deficit to impact our future ability to operate the business given our current cash position and strong cash flow generation. Our increase in cash and cash equivalents reflected $196.2 million provided by operating activities, partially offset by the net impact of cash provided by financing activities and cash used in investing activities.

 

Cash provided by operating activities

 

Cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2008 was $196.2 million, an increase of $89.8 million, or 84%, from $106.4 million provided by operating activities in fiscal 2007. The increase was primarily composed of additional cash generated from changes in working capital accounts. As compared to last year, we generated an additional $76.3 million from accounts receivable, $3.6 million from inventory, prepaid and other assets and $9.3 million from deferred revenue. These increases from working capital accounts were partially offset by an incremental usage of $46.2 million for accounts payable and accrued expenses. In addition to the increase from the working capital accounts, cash provided by operating activities also improved by $46.7 million due to additional cash generated from our net loss after adding back non-cash items such as depreciation and amortization and share-based payments, partially offset by a $13.6 million difference in our deferred tax position.

 

Cash provided by operating activities for fiscal 2007 was $106.4 million, an increase of $44.4 million, or 72%, from $62.0 million provided by operating activities in fiscal 2006. The increase was composed of changes relating to the net loss after adding back non-cash items such as depreciation and amortization and share-based compensation. In fiscal 2007 this amount was $105.1 million compared to $54.9 million in fiscal 2006, an increase of $50.2 million, or 91%. The change in working capital accounts contributed $1.3 million in fiscal 2007 as compared to $7.1 million in fiscal 2008, a net decrease of $5.8 million in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007.

 

Cash used in investing activities

 

Cash used in investing activities for fiscal 2008 was $446.1 million, a decrease of $131.6 million, or 23%, as compared to net cash used in investing activities of $577.7 million for fiscal 2007. The decrease in cash used in investing activities was primarily attributable to cash paid relating to our acquisitions, with cash payments of $564.3 million in fiscal 2007, as compared to $392.5 million in fiscal 2008. This was partially offset by an incremental $29.0 million that we paid for third party licenses and patent defense costs in fiscal 2008 as compared to fiscal 2007.

 

Cash used in investing activities for fiscal 2007 was $577.7 million, an increase of $207.5 million, or 56% compared to $370.2 million for fiscal 2006. The increase in cash used in investing activities was primarily driven by a $171.5 million increase in cash paid for acquisitions in fiscal 2007 compared to fiscal 2006. Our purchases of property and equipment and fees paid to defend our intellectual property each increased in fiscal 2007 relative to fiscal 2006, collectively using $20.2 million in fiscal 2007 compared to $12.6 million in fiscal 2006, using an additional $7.5 million in cash. In fiscal 2007 we generated $28.6 million less cash from maturities of marketable securities and removal of encumbrances against certain restricted cash balances, as we generated $6.7 million and $35.3 million during fiscal 2007 and 2006, respectively. The decrease in cash provided from marketable securities and restricted cash was the result of most of our investments and restricted cash having been converted to cash and cash equivalents during fiscal 2006.

 

Cash provided by financing activities

 

Cash provided by financing activities for fiscal 2008 was $327.1 million, as compared to net cash provided by financing activities of $541.5 million for fiscal 2007, a decrease of $214.4 million, or 40%. The majority of the cash provided by financing activities in fiscal 2008 was composed of $330.6 million in net proceeds from equity issuances, and in fiscal 2007 was $551.4 million from borrowings relating to our Expanded 2006 Credit Facility and 2.75% Convertible Senior Debentures. The net decrease between the fiscal 2008 equity issuances and the fiscal 2007 debt issuances is $220.8 million. We received $28.4 million in fiscal 2007 from our employees’ exercise of

certain share-based awards, compared to $11.1 million in fiscal 2008. In fiscal 2007 we paid $18.7 million relating to a deferred acquisition payment for an acquisition consummated in fiscal 2005, we did not have any deferred payments of this nature in fiscal 2008.

 

Cash provided by financing activities for fiscal 2007 was $541.5 million, an increase of $192.8 million, or 55% compared to $348.7 million in fiscal 2006. The increase in cash provided by financing activities is primarily related to $205.4 million of incremental net borrowings from our Expanded 2006 Credit Facility and 2.75% Convertible Senior Debentures. This increase in cash generated was partially offset by $4.5 million additional payments of notes and payables and capital leases, $4.2 million in additional deferred acquisition payments, $3.2 million for repurchase of shares originally issued to the former shareholders of Mobile Voice Control, Inc., incremental $1.1 million purchases of additional treasury stock and $2.3 million less cash generated for proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee share-based compensation plans.

 

Credit Facilities and Debt

 

2.75% Convertible Senior Debentures

 

On August 13, 2007, Nuance issued $250 million of 2.75% convertible senior debentures due in 2027 (“the 2027 Debentures”) in a private placement to Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. (the “Initial Purchasers”). Total proceeds, net of debt discount of $7.5 million and deferred debt issuance costs of $1.1 million, were $241.4 million. The 2027 Debentures bear an interest rate of 2.75% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears beginning on February 15, 2008, and mature on August 15, 2027 subject to the right of the holders of the 2027 Debentures to require us to redeem the 2007 Debentures on August 15, 2014, 2017 and 2022. The related debt discount and debt issuance costs are being amortized to interest expense using the effective interest rate method through August 2014. As of September 30, 2008 and 2007, the ending unamortized discount was $6.3 million and $7.4 million, respectively, and the ending unamortized deferred debt issuance costs were $0.8 million and $1.1 million, respectively. The 2027 Debentures are general senior unsecured obligations, ranking equally in right of payment to all of our existing and future unsecured, unsubordinated indebtedness and senior in right of payment to any indebtedness that is contractually subordinated to the 2027 Debentures. The 2027 Debentures are effectively subordinated to our secured indebtedness to the extent of the value of the collateral securing such indebtedness and are structurally subordinated to indebtedness and other liabilities of our subsidiaries. If converted, the principal amount of the 2027 Debentures is payable in cash and any amounts payable in excess of the principal of $250 million, will (based on an initial conversion rate, which represents an initial conversion price of $19.47 per share, subject to adjustment as defined) be paid in cash or shares of our common stock, at our election, only in the following circumstances and to the following extent: (i) on any date during any fiscal quarter beginning after September 30, 2007 (and only during such fiscal quarter) if the closing sale price of our common stock was more than 120% of the then current conversion price for at least 20 trading days in the period of the 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the previous fiscal quarter; (ii) during the five consecutive business-day period following any five consecutive trading-day period in which the trading price for $1,000 principal amount of the Debentures for each day during such five trading-day period was less than 98% of the closing sale price of our common stock multiplied by the then current conversion rate; (iii) upon the occurrence of specified corporate transactions, as described in the indenture for the 2027 Debentures; and (iv) at the option of the holder at any time on or after February 15, 2027. Additionally, we may redeem the 2027 Debentures, in whole or in part, on or after August 20, 2014 at par plus accrued and unpaid interest; each holder shall have the right, at such holder’s option, to require us to repurchase all or any portion of the 2027 Debentures held by such holder on August 15, 2014, August 15, 2017 and August 15, 2022. Upon conversion, we will pay cash and shares of our common stock (or, at our election, cash in lieu of some or all of such common stock), if any. If we undergo a fundamental change (as described in the indenture for the 2027 Debentures) prior to maturity, holders will have the option to require us to repurchase all or any portion of their debentures for cash at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the debentures to be purchased plus any accrued and unpaid interest, including any additional interest to, but excluding, the repurchase date. As of September 30, 2008, no conversion triggers were met. If the conversion triggers were met, we could be required to repay all or some of the principal amount in cash prior to the maturity date.

Expanded 2006 Credit Facility

 

We have entered into a credit facility which consists of a $75 million revolving credit line including letters of credit, a $355 million term loan entered into on March 31, 2006, a $90 million term loan entered into on April 5, 2007 and a $225 million term loan entered into on August 24, 2007 (the “Expanded 2006 Credit Facility”). The term loans are due March 2013 and the revolving credit line is due March 2012. As of September 30, 2008, $657.0 million remained outstanding under the term loans and there were $16.6 million of letters of credit issued under the revolving credit line. There were no other outstanding borrowings under the revolving credit line as of September 30, 2008. On October 8, 2008, we drew $55.0 million against our revolving credit line.

 

The Expanded 2006 Credit Facility contains covenants, including, among other things, covenants that restrict the ability of us and our subsidiaries to incur certain additional indebtedness, create or permit liens on assets, enter into sale-leaseback transactions, make loans or investments, sell assets, make certain acquisitions, pay dividends, or repurchase stock. The agreement also contains events of default, including failure to make payments of principal or interest, failure to observe covenants, breaches of representations and warranties, defaults under certain other material indebtedness, failure to satisfy material judgments, a change of control and certain insolvency events. As of September 30, 2008, we were in compliance with the covenants under the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility.

 

Borrowings under the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility bear interest at a rate equal to the applicable margin plus, at our option, either (a) the base rate (which is the higher of the corporate base rate of UBS AG, Stamford Branch, or the federal funds rate plus 0.50% per annum) or (b) LIBOR (equal to (i) the British Bankers’ Association Interest Settlement Rates for deposits in U.S. dollars divided by (ii) one minus the statutory reserves applicable to such borrowing). The applicable margin for term loan borrowings under the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility ranges from 0.75% to 1.50% per annum with respect to base rate borrowings and from 1.75% to 2.50% per annum with respect to LIBOR-based borrowings, depending on our leverage ratio. The applicable margin for revolving loan borrowings, under the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility ranges from 0.50% to 1.25% per annum with respect to base rate borrowings and from 1.50% to 2.25% per annum with respect to LIBOR-based borrowings, depending upon our leverage ratio. As of September 30, 2008, our applicable margin for term loan was 1.25% for base rate borrowings and 2.25% for LIBOR-based borrowings. We are required to pay a commitment fee for unutilized commitments under the revolving credit facility at a rate ranging from 0.375% to 0.50% per annum, based upon our leverage ratio. As of September 30, 2008, the commitment fee rate was 0.5% and the effective interest rate was 4.72%.

 

We capitalized debt issuance costs related to the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility and are amortizing the costs to interest expense using the effective interest rate method through March 2012 for costs associated with the revolving credit facility and through March 2013 for costs associated with the term loan. As of September 30, 2008 and 2007, the ending unamortized deferred financing fees were $10.0 million and $12.3 million, respectively and are included in other assets in our accompanying balance sheet.

 

The Expanded 2006 Credit Facility is subject to repayment in four equal quarterly installments of 1% per annum ($6.7 million per year, not including interest, which is also payable quarterly), and an annual excess cash flow sweep, as defined in the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility, which is payable beginning in the first quarter of each fiscal year, beginning in fiscal 2008, based on the excess cash flow generated in the previous fiscal year. No payment under the excess cash flow sweep provision was due in the first quarter of either fiscal 2008 or fiscal 2009 as there was no excess cash flow generated in either of the respective prior fiscal years. We will continue to evaluate the extent to which a payment is due in the first quarter of future fiscal years excess cash flow generation. At the current time, we are unable to predict the amount of the outstanding principal, if any, that we may be required to repay in future fiscal years pursuant to the excess cash flow sweep provisions. Any term loan borrowings not paid through the baseline repayment, the excess cash flow sweep, or any other mandatory or optional payments that we may

make, will be repaid upon maturity. If only the baseline repayments are made, the annual aggregate principal amount of the term loans repaid would be as follows (in millions):

 

 

Our obligations under the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility are unconditionally guaranteed by, subject to certain exceptions, each of our existing and future direct and indirect wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries. The Expanded 2006 Credit Facility and the guarantees thereof are secured by first priority liens and security interests in the following: 100% of the capital stock of substantially all of our domestic subsidiaries and 65% of the outstanding voting equity interests and 100% of the non-voting equity interests of first-tier foreign subsidiaries, all material tangible and intangible assets of us and the guarantors, and any present and future intercompany debt. The Expanded 2006 Credit Facility also contains provisions for mandatory prepayments of outstanding term loans upon receipt of the following, and subject to certain exceptions: 100% of net cash proceeds from asset sales, 100% of net cash proceeds from issuance or incurrence of debt, and 100% of extraordinary receipts. We may voluntarily prepay the Expanded 2006 Credit Facility without premium or penalty other than breakage costs, as defined with respect to LIBOR-based loans.

 

We believe that cash flows from future operations in addition to cash and marketable securities on hand will be sufficient to meet our working capital, investing, financing and contractual obligations and the contingent payments for acquisitions, if any are realized, as they become due for the foreseeable future. We also believe that in the event future operating results are not as planned, that we could take actions, including restructuring actions and other cost reduction initiatives, to reduce operating expenses to levels which, in combination with expected future revenue, will continue to generate sufficient operating cash flow. In the event that these actions are not effective in generating operating cash flows we may be required to issue equity or debt securities on terms that may be less favorable.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements, Contractual Obligations, Contingent Liabilities and Commitments

 

Contractual Obligations

 

The following table outlines our contractual payment obligations as of September 30, 2008 (in millions):