Dictaphone has specialised in converting spoken language into written texts.
The American company used to be owned by the Belgian language processing company of Lernout&Hauspie.
After Lernout&Hauspie went bankrupt five years ago, Belgian and German banks took possession of Dictaphone shares.
They are now selling the shares to Nuance Communications, an American company, for an estimated 300 million euros. It's not clear whether that sum will cover the costs incurred after the bankruptcy of Lernout&Hauspie.
Dictaphone employs some 300 people worldwide currently. 120 of them work in Belgium. They would be able to keep their jobs.
The rise and fall of Lernout&Hauspie
Dictaphone is one of the oldest companies in the United States. One of its co-founders in 1888 was Graham Bell (photo), the man who invented the telephone.
Dictaphone is specialised in dictation software in the medical sector, converting spoken language into written texts.
The West-Flanders based company Lernout&Hauspie looked ready to conquer the world in the sector of speech technology at the turn of the century and took over their American counterparts.
However, a fraud case eventually led to Lernout&Hauspie's bankruptcy in 2001.
After the takeover, Nuance Communications will owe the lion's share of the former Lernout&Hauspie empire.
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