Nuance has acquired Swype for $100 million

SOFTWARE MAKER Nuance Communications has bought out Swype for more than $100 million, according to Uncrunched.

If you haven't heard of Nuance then it is the maker of the T9 predictive text software found almost every mobile phone since the 90s. Swype is the producer of a virtual Qwerty keyboard for smartphones that uses gestures to predict what you're writing.

The source has "knowledge of the deal" but there is no further information. It's possible that Nuance is doing it to get rid of the competition and help the firm get back into the game with today's smartphones.

However, if that's not the case then this could give Swype a boost in development and we could see it grow to be the standard virtual keyboard to come with smartphones in the future. µ