tech2 News Staff

Nuance Communications, the company behind Apple's mobile assistant Siri, could be bought over by rival Samsung, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The paper cited sources familiar with the matter and says that, "Nuance has held talks not only with Apple's rival Samsung, but a number of private equity firms." Interestingly Nuance has Carl Icahn as its biggest shareholder and he owns about 19 percent according to filings, adds the report. Icahn recently boosted his stake in Apple by 2.8 million shares worth nearly $1.65 billion. He has a total of 7.5 million AAPL shares.

The WSJ report says that it is not known how far the talks have progressed, or if a deal is close to being reached.

Apple isn't the only big consumer for Nuance. The US company's voice recognition tech also power Samsung's handsets, televisions and tablets and its technology is integrated within Samsung's S-Voice software and the firm's upcoming wearable technology.

Samsung isn't the only one who has been trying to acquire Nuance. According to this ZDNet report, last year saw rumours of a potential purchase of Nuance by Apple thanks to "a chance comment by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who stated the iPad and iPhone maker had bought the firm. It is believed that Apple held talks with Nuance, but a deal was never reached.