Nuance Communications Inc. surged to its highest price since May 2013. Its increase transpired following billionaire investor Carl Icahn's additional investment in the speech recognition software developer.

Nuance share rose by 1.1% to US$19.31 at 10:45 am in New York, and earlier reached US$19.50. According to a regulatory filing submitted today, Icahn currently owns around 16% of the shares. The figure was up from the 9.3% stake he disclosed in April.

Icahn makes use of holdings to strive for changes in corporations he thinks are underrated or poorly managed. Wedbuh Securities Inc's analyst, Shyam Patil, said Icahn's attempt to further increase his venture capital holdings in Nuance suggested that he would push the corporation to sell itself or shed other enterprises.

"This signals that he's here to stay," Patil stated in an interview today. Patil said the stakes outperform with a US$22 target price. "If the company were to put itself or certain assets up for sale, there would be a lot of interest."

Patil said Apple Inc and Google could potentially be interested in the mobile technology of Nuance. He added that the company's possible suitors would include International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.