Nuance has bought Swype in a deal worth over $100 million based on new tips late Thursday. The deal would support its existing ownership of the T9 keyboard system with an advanced, full QWERTY layout.
the deal makes Nuance the default provider of custom keyboard layouts on many phones, whether a basic device using T9 or Android hardware using Swype. It might help Swype’s scale, although its keyboard is already available on many top-tier smartphones from Samsung and others.
A buyout would come just a day after Nuance is thought to have scored a key deal for the iPhone 4S to power the voice recognition system behind Siri. INuance now has a footprint in Android and iOS at the same time and more influence on getting its software into either platform.
