Nuance Communications has acquired MacSpeech and will extend its Dragon NaturallySpeaking family of products to Mac users.

MacSpeech is the leading provider of speech recognition solutions for Macs. Dragon is currently the overall leading speech recognition application for the desktop and is used by millions of people worldwide.

“We have heard from our customers – and from the Mac community at large – for years, that they want Dragon for the Mac environment,” said Peter Mahoney, Senior VP and GM for Dragon.

He added: “MacSpeech’s knowledge of the Mac platform and its deep understanding of Mac users, coupled with our decades-long experience with speech recognition and the popular Dragon brand, will allow us to provide the world’s best dictation technology in a solution that is 100% Mac.”

Nuance plans to accelerate the growth of MacSpeech’s products by adding additional R&D support, marketing support, Dragon brand recognition and distribution channels. The company also said that the acquisition will broaden Dragon’s growth opportunities as its products are presented to new audiences with new devices.

President of MacSpeech Andrew Taylor said, “We are excited to become part of the Nuance team and accelerate our ability to deliver great speech solutions to the Mac community.”

Nuance currently offers Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search apps for the iPhone in North America. Dragon also recently partnered with automotive manufacturers to provide drivers with real-time information and services via built-in voice controls.